LIBRARY 

rTNTVERSITY  OF  C  '  T.IFC 
DAVIS 


THE  LAST  POLITICAL  WRITINGS 


(JEN.  NATHANIEL   LYOI, 

U.  S.  A/ 


SKETCH  OF  HIS  LIFE  AND  MILITARY  SERVICES. 


"  Pit  make  thee  famous  by  my  pen. 
And  glorious  by  my  sword." 

GRAHAM,  MARQUIS  OF  MONTROSB. 


NEW  YORK: 

RUDD   &  CARLETON,   130   GRAND   STREET. 

M  DCCC  LXI. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALii 
DAVIS 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1861,  by 

KUDD   &  CARLETON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


B.    CBAIGHEAD, 
Printer,  Stereotyper,  and  Electrotyper 

ffiaiton 


TO  THE  PEOPLE 

OF    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA, 


THE   LAST   WISE   AND   NOBLE   WRITINGS 
OF 

GENERAL  NATHANIEL  LYON,   U.S.A., 

THE  GALLANT  COMMANDER,  THE  HERO,  AND  THE  PATRIOT, 

WHO, 

IN    THE    DARKEST  HOUR 
OF    THE    MONSTER    REBELLION    OF    1861. 

SACRIFICED    HIS    LIFE    IN    DEFENCE 

OF    THEIR    LAWS,    LIBERTY,    AND    HONOR, 
*  ARE    DEDICATED 

BY    THE    PUBLISHERS. 


ODE, 

WRITTEN    IN    THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE    YEAR    1746. 

How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest, 
By  all  their  country' }s  wishes  blessed  ! 
When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold, 
Returns  to  deck  their  hallowed  mould, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung  ; 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung  ; 
There  Honour  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay  ; 
And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there  ! 

WILLIAM  COLLINS. 


CONTENTS. 


MEMOIR  OF  NATHANIEL  LYON, 11 

OUR  CAUSE — OUR  CANDIDATE,     .        .        .        .        .111 
SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNITY,       .        .         .        .        .  120 

ARE  WE  SUBDUED? 135 

THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION, 139 

TRUE  TO  His  MISSION,         .        .        .        .        .        .151 

FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY, 161 

THE  SECRET  OF  IT, .        .  167 

OUR  GRIEVANCES, 176 

DISUNION, 184 

OUR  POLITICAL  SUMMARY, 190 

A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN, 194 

REPUBLICAN  REFLECTIONS, 200 

OUR  TRIUMPH, 204 

PROPOSED  AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION,     .         .  210 

LETTER  I, 214 

LETTER  II, 224 

PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES,  ETC.,    .....  233 

FUNERAL  OBSEQUIES,    .......  239 

IN  MEMORY  OF  GENERAL  LYON,  .        .        .        .        .271 

LYON, .273 


MEMOIR. 


MEMOIR    OF    NATHANIEL    LYON. 


NATHANIEL  LYON  was  born  at  Ashford, 
Windham  co.,  Connecticut,  on  the  —  of 
July,  1819.  He  was  the  son  of  Amasa 
Lyon,  a  well-to-do  farmer,  for  many  years 
a  magistrate,  and  prominent  man  in  Ash- 
ford.  His  mother,  whose  name  was  Kezia, 
belonged  to  the  Knowlton  family.  Two 
members  of  this  family,  Thomas  and  Daniel, 
were  distinguished  in  the  Revolution,  and 
possibly  before,  for  they  both  served  in 
the  wars  of  the  Colonists  and  the  English 
against  the  French,  probably  under  Put 
nam,  who  was  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  first  troops  raised  in  Connecticut  in 


12  MEMOIR   OF 

1755,  and  who,  by  the  way,  might  almost 
be  considered  a  neighbor  of  theirs,  Pom- 
fret,  his  residence,  being  only  a  few  miles 
distant  from  Ashford.  The  former  of  the 
brothers,  Thomas,  is  well  known  to  the 
readers  of  American  History,  in  connexion 
with  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  where,  as 
a  Captain,  he  played  an  important  part, 
commanding  the  Connecticut  troops  at  a 
breastwork  of  hay,  which  he  extemporized 
along  an  old  rail-fence,  and  which  formed 
a  valuable  defence  to  the  provincials  before 
the  battle  was  over. 

After  the  lapse  of  little  more  than  a 
year,  we  hear  of  him  again,  as  Colonel 
Knowlton.  It  was  the  16th  of  September, 
1776,  and  a  British  force,  under  Brigadier 
Leslie,  was  making  its  way  by  M'Gowan's 
pass  to  Harlem  Plains.  "  The  little  garri 
sons,"  says  Lossing,  in  his  Field  Book  of 
the  Revolution,  "  at  Mount  Morris  and  Har 
lem  Cove  (Manhattariville)  confronted  them 
at  the  mouth  of  a  deep  gorge,  and  kept 
them  in  partial  check  until  the  arrival  of 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  13 

re-enforcements.  "Washington  was  at  Mor 
ris's  house,  and  hearing  the  firing,  rode  to 
his  outpost,  where  the  Convent  of  the 
Sacred  Heart  now  stands.  There  he  met 
Colonel  Knowlton  of  the  Connecticut  Ran 
gers  ("  Congress's  Own?}  who  had  been 
skirmishing  with  the  advancing  foe,  and 
now  came  for  orders.  The  enemy  were 
about  three  hundred  strong  upon  the  plain, 
and  had  a  reserve  in  the  woods  upon  the 
heights.  Knowlton  was  ordered  to  hasten 
with  his  Rangers,  and  Major  Leitch  with 
three  companies  of  Weedon's  Virginia 
regiment,  to  gain  the  rear  of  the  advance, 
while  a  feigned  attack  was  to  be  made  in 
front.  Perceiving  this,  the  enemy  rushed 
forward  to  gain  an  advantageous  position 
on  the  plain,  when  they  were  attacked  by 
Knowlton  and  Leitch  on  the  flank.  Re-en 
forcements  now  came  down  from  the  hills, 
when  the  enemy  changed  front,  and  fell 
upon  the  Americans.  A  short  but  severe 
conflict  ensued.  Three  bullets  passed 
through  the  body  of  Leitch,  and  he  was 


14  MEMOIR   OF 

borne  away.  A  few  minutes  afterwards, 
Knowlton  received  a  bullet  through  the 
head,  fell,  and  was  borne  off  by  his  sorrow 
ing  companions."  So  ended  the  battle  of 
Harlem  Plains,  as  far  as  Thomas  Knowlton 
was  concerned ;  for  he  was  carried,  Lossing 
tells  us,  to  the  redoubt,  near  the  Hudson, 
at  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-Sixth  street, 
where  he  expired  before  sunset,  and  was 
buried  within  the  embankments.  Washing 
ton  honored  his  memory  in  general  orders 
on  the  morning  after  the  battle,  for,  allud 
ing  to  his  death,  he  wrote:  "He  would 
have  been  an  honor  to  any  country."  This 
was  a  noble  tribute,  and  not  the  last  which 
the  Knowltons  were  destined  to  receive, 
their  valor  and  glory  flowering  again  in 
the  person  of  their  descendant,  Nathaniel 
Lyon. 

If  there  be  anything  in  ancestry  (a 
mooted  point  about  which  the  wisest  differ), 
the  boy  Nathaniel  was  fortunate  in  his 
birth.  Of  his  early  years  we  have  no  ac 
count.  They  were  probably  passed  like 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  15 

those  of  most  New  England  children — 
evenly,  simply,  monotonously ;  amdng  his 
brothers  and  sisters  at  home,  playing,  or 
doing  childish  "  chores  ;"  or  at  the  village 
school,  trying  to  realize  the  truth  of  the  old 
proverb  (which,  by  the  way,  is  not  particu 
larly  evident),  that  "  Learning  is  better  than 
houses  and  land  ;"  floundering  in  the  dismal, 
and  seemingly  bottomless,  quagmire,  which 
the  wise  call  Spelling  ;  wandering  in  the 
thorny  labyrinths  of  Grammar ;  poring 
over  the  configurations  of  Geography,  occa 
sionally  "  bounding"  a  distant  State  by  way 
of  refreshing  his  memory ;  or  clumsily 
stumbling  through  the  delicate  mysteries 
of  pothooks  and  hangers !  This,  and 
more  of  the  same  sort — pictures  of  juvenile 
life  in  the  country ;  groups  of  tanned  and 
noisy  boys,  behind  the  school-house,  along 
the  road,  or  in  the  fields,  trundling  hoops, 
flying  kites,  or  playing  ball;  roaming  in 
the  woods  for  birds'  nests,  or  gathering  ber 
ries  in  distant  pastures  ;  we  can  imagine  all 
this,  and  be  pretty  sure,  too,  that  we  are 


IQ  MEMOIR   OF 

not  far  from  the  truth.  Still,  this  is  not 
the  way  in  which  Biography  ought  to  be 
written  ;  so  we  will  leave  the  unsubstantial 
though  poetical  region  of  Fancy,  for  the 
solid  and  prosaic  world  of  Fact.  Of 
the  childhood  of  General  Lyon,  then,  we 
know  nothing,  except  that  it  was  passed  in 
his  native  village,  and,  for  the  most  part,  in 
the  house  in  which  he  was  born.  This 
house,  the  homestead  of  the  family,  stands 
about  four  miles  from  Eastford  (Ashford 
was  divided  in  1847,  and  the  name  of  the 
northern  portion  of  the  township  changed 
to  Eastford),  on  the  road  to  Hampton. 
Leaving  the  little  hamlet  of  Phcenixville  we 
climb  a  long  hill,  thence  over  a  rough  road 
to  a  valley,  nestled  in  which,  between  two 
steep  and  rocky  hills,  about  twenty  rods 
from  the  highway,  is  the  house — a  small, 
old  building,  somewhat  out  of  repair,  with 
rusty  clapboards,  which  were  once  painted 
red.  Poor  and  unpicturesque  as  it  is,  it 
was  precious  in  the  eyes  of  General  Lyon, 
whose  memory  delighted  to  dwell  upon  it 


NATHANIEL   LYON".  17 

in  after  years.  The  night  before  his  last 
battle,  he  slept,  we  are  told,  with  one  of  his 
friends,  Major  Scofield,  between  two  high 
rocks,  where  he  was  so  wedged  in  that  it 
was  difficult  for  him  to  stir ;  he  made  light 
of  the  inconvenience,  however,  as  was  his 
wont,  and,  his  mind  reverting  to  his  early 
home  and  its  surroundings,  remarked  that 
he  was  "born  between  two  rocks." 

"Nathaniel,"  said  an  aged  man,  to  one 
who  was  present  at  the  General's  funeral, 
"Nathaniel  worked  for  me  on  my  farm 
when  he  was  a  boy.  He  was  smart,  daring, 
and  resolute,  and  wonderfully  attached  to 
his  mother."  One  likes  to  learn  such 
things  of  a  hero  in  his  boyhood ;  they  show 
that  the  child  was  the  father  of  the  man ; 
that  the  courage  we  admire,  and  the  glory 
we  reverence,  were  the  legitimate  growth 
of  a  brave  soul,  and  a  tender,  loving  heart. 
In  addition  to  the  qualities  already  men 
tioned,  Nathaniel  is  said  to  have  shown, 
even  in  his  early  years,  a  great  talent  for 
mathematics,  a  circumstance  which  we  can 


13  MEMOIR  OF 

readily  believe  (though  not  the  report  that 
it  was  cultivated  under  the  tuition  of  an 
experienced  teacher,  experienced  teachers 
being  so  seldom  included  among  the  ap 
pointments  of  a  farm !)  as  it  probably  de 
termined  his  future  career. 

In  his  -eighteenth  year  (according  to  one 
account,  July  1st,  1837),  he  entered  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  where  he 
remained  till  1841,  when  he  graduated  with 
distinction,  being  the  eleventh  in  his  class. 
Appointed  Second  Lieutenant  in  the  Second 
United  States  Infantry,  his  military  life 
may  be  said  to  have  commenced.  We  shall 
not  trace  him  through  his  initiation,  the 
months  and  years  in  which  he  was  gaining 
an  active  knowledge  of  his  profession,  for 
the  early  part  of  his  career,  however  ardu 
ous  it  may  have  been  to  himself,  and  use 
ful  to  his  country,  was  passed  in  obscu 
rity.  Let  it  suffice  then,  to  say,  that  he 
served  in  the  everglades  of  Florida  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  Seminole  war;  that  he 
was  stationed  at  various  posts  on  our  West- 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  19 

ern  frontier  ;  and  that  he  went  through  the 
Mexican  war,  gradually  rising  in  rank  (he 
entered  the  latter  as  a  First  Lieutenant), 
and  drawing  attention  to  himself.  He  was 
engaged  in  the  bombardment  and  capture 
of  Vera  Cruz ;  and  at  the  battle  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  his  company  was  the  only  one  that 
reached  the  crest  of  the  hill  in  time  to 
engage  the  Mexicans  before  their  retreat. 
"  No  sooner  had  the  height  become  ours," 
said  Captain  Morris,  who  commanded  the 
regiment,  "  than  the  enemy  appeared  in 
large  force  on  the  Jalapa  road,  and  we 
were  ordered  to  hasten  to  that  point.  Cap 
tain  Canby,  with  a  small  detachment,  accom 
panied  by  Lieutenant  Lyon,  pressed  hotly 
in  their  rear,  and  were  soon  in  possession  of 
a  battery  of  three  pieces  which  had  been 
firing  upon  us  in  reverse." 

At  Contreras,  Lieutenant  Lyon's  regi 
ment  performed  an  important  part  in  resist 
ing  the  onslaught  of  the  enemy's  cavalry, 
and  his  own  command,  held  in  reserve  in 
the  centre  of  the  hollow  square  formed  for 


20  MEMOIR  OF 

resistance  to  the  attack,  did  most  signal  ser 
vice.  And  on  the  day  after  the  battle,  he 
himself,  at  the  head  of  his  men,  followed  in 
pursuit  of  the  routed  Mexicans,  and  suc 
ceeded  in  capturing  several  pieces  of  their 
artillery,  which  he  immediately  turned  upon 
their  flying  forces.  He  also  distinguished 
himself  at  Churubusco,  and  for  his  gallantry 
in  both  actions  received  the  following 
recommendation  in  the  regimental  returns 
of  his  commanding  officer,  Acting  Colonel 
Morris.  "  I  here  take  the  opportunity  of 
recommending  these  two  officers  (Captains 
Casey  and  Wessels),  together  with  Captain 
J.  R.  Smith  and  First  Lieutenant  Lyon,  to 
the  special  notice  of  the  Colonel  command 
ing  the  brigade."  The  result  of  this  honora 
ble  mention  was  the  appointment  of  Lieu 
tenant  Lyon  to  the  rank  of  Brevet  Captain. 
He  also  assisted  in  the  capture  of  the  city 
of  Mexico,  and  while  fighting  in  the  streets. 
near  the  Belen  Gate,  received  a  wound  from 
a  musket  ball. 

Peace  being  declared  with  Mexico,  Cap* 


NATHANIEL  LYOK  21 

tain  Lyon  (he  received  the  rank  of  full 
Captain  on  the  llth  of  June,  1851)  was 
ordered  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  Missouri, 
preparatory  to  a  contemplated  march  over 
land  to  California.  By  a  change  of  orders 
from  the  War  Department,  however,  his 
regiment  was  dispatched  by  the  way  of 
Cape  Horn,  and  arrived  in  California  shortly 
after  its  acquisition  by  the  United  States. 
He  remained  in  California  for  a  number  of 
years,  longer,  it  is  said,  than  most  of  his  fel 
low  officers,  seeing  all  sorts  of  life  and  ser 
vice  incident  to  his  profession  in  a  new  and 
partially  wild  country.  His  time  was  chiefly 
employed  in  fighting  the  Indians,  an  enemy 
not  to  be  judged  by  the  ordinary  standard, 
or  conquered  by  the  ordinary  means  ;  but 
by  long  and  tedious  marches,  sudden  sur 
prises,  incessant  alarms,  and  frequent  skir 
mishes — in  short,  by  a  barbaric  strategy 
similar,  but  superior,  to  their  own.  The 
schooling  which  he  had  had  in  the  ever 
glades  of  Florida  was  of  use  to  him  now, 
and  he  soon  became  proficient  in  this  style 


22  MEMOIR   OF 

of  warfare.  It  was  adapted  to  the  cast  of 
his  mind,  which  was  in  many  respects  that 
of  a  partisan  leader  ;  not  that  he  was  defi 
cient  in  the  art  of  his  profession,  the  science 
of  war,  for  he  was  a  thoroughly  scientific 
soldier ;  but  that  it  suited  his  rapid  way  of 
thinking,  and  prompt  way  of  acting. 

He  was  finally  removed  from  California, 
which  we  will  suppose  became  in  time  so 
far  free  from  Indians,  as  no  longer  to  need 
his  services,  and  was  stationed  on  our  West 
ern  frontiers,  chiefly  in  Kansas  and  Ne 
braska.  It  was  at  the  height  of  the  poli 
tical  troubles  there,  the  history  of  which 
we  all  know,  and  the  result  of  which  we 
all  see,  in  the  conflicts  which  are  now  divid 
ing  our  unhappy  country.  His  position  as 
an  officer  of  the  Government,  his  peculiar 
position,  we  may  almost  say,  remembering 
who  filled  the  Presidential  Chair  then  (who 
so  abject  now  as  the  white-haired,  broken- 
down  old  man  at  Wheatlands  ?)  made  him 
acquainted  with  the  most  prominent  men 
of  that  section,  border  ruffians  and  the  like, 


NATHANIEL  LTON.  23 

and  the  measures  which  the  Government 
were  trying  to  force  upon  the  people.  As 
he  had  always  been  accustomed  to  think 
for  himself,  he  soon  began  to  have  a  very 
decided  opinion  concerning  the  merits  of 
the  case  then  and  there  on  trial — Freedom 
versus  Slavery,  and  it  is  no  slander  to  his 
memory  to  say  that  it  was  not  in  favor  of 
the  latter.  He  was,  or  had  been,  a  Demo 
crat,  but  the  scenes  of  fraud  and  violence 
with  which  he  was  surrounded,  and  which 
he  could  hardly  fail  to  trace  to  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  made  him  look  for  salvation  in 
another  political  creed.  The  change  which 
he  experienced  at  that  time,  led  him  at  a 
later  period  to  enter  what  was  to  him  a 
new  field  of  operations — the  world  in  which 
the  pen  and  not  the  sword  rules.  The  re 
sult  may  be  seen  in  the  articles  which  fol 
low.  They  were  written  in  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1860,  while  he  was  stationed  at 
Camp  Riley,  Kansas,  and  were  published 
in  a  weekly  paper  issued  in  that  vicinity, 
The  Manhattan  Express.  The  date  of  their 


24  MEMOIR  OF 

appearance  is  annexed  to  each.  The  mo 
tive  which  impelled  Captain  Lyon  to  write' 
these  articles,  was  that  which  made  him  a 
soldier  and  kept  him  one — a  sincere,  ear 
nest  desire  to  be  useful  to  his  country. 
What  other  motive  could  have  induced  a 
soldier  like  him  to  lay  down  his  sword  and 
take  up  the  pen,  a  weapon  to  which  he  was 
unaccustomed,  and  in  the  use  of  which  the 
merest  literary  tyro  might  worst  him  ?  Not 
vanity,  for  his  articles  were  published  ano 
nymously  ;  and  certainly  not  spite,  for  no 
one  in  power  had  injured  him.  He  may 
have  been  wrong  in  some  of  his  conclusions 
(we  do  not  say  that  he  was),  if  so,  the  error 
was  that  of  an  honest  man,  not  a  dema 
gogue.  That  his  heart  was  in  his  work  is 
evident  from  his  notes  at  this  time.  "  My 
article  is  longer  than  I  wished,"  he  wrote  to 
the  editor  on  the  llth  of  Sept.  1860,  "but 
it  could  hardly  be  shorter  and  argumenta 
tive.  I  have  tried  to  show  what  I  believe 
Mr.  Douglas's  conduct  admits  of — an  inten 
tion,  in  spite  of  all  circumstances,  to  do 


NATHANIEL  LYOK  25 

what  lie  can  for  the  pro-slavery  party,  and 
his  pretended  opposition  is  only  to  be  able 
to  serve  them  better.  I  may  not  have  made 
this  as  plain  as  I  had  wished  and  intended, 
but  must  let  it  pass  now." 

"  I  have  not  been  able  to  write  you  for 
this  week's  paper,"  he  wrote  again  on  the 
23d  Nov.,  "  and  have  been  under  the  im 
pression  that  you  would  not  expect  me  to 
do  so. 

"  There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that 
several  of  the  Southern  States  will  precipi 
tate  themselves  into  disaster  and  disgrace, 
if  allowed  to  do  so ;  but  this  can  be  pre 
vented  by  the  President,  if  he  chooses  to 
exercise  his  authority  as  becomes  the  chief 
Magistrate  of  our  great  and  powerful  coun 
try.  But  unfortunately  Mr.  Buchanan 
seems  to  regard  himself  as  elected  to  sub 
mit  tremblingly  to  any  and  every  demand 
of  the  South,  and  I  fear  he  can  never  rouse 
himself  to  take  such  action  as  our  emergen 
cies  now  require  as  due  to  the  country  from 

him.     Time  must  show :  the  only  thing  safe 
2 


26  MEMOIR   OF 

to  predict  is,  that  the  conduct  of  the  South 
must  involve  her  people  in  suffering  and 
shame." 

A  few  months  later  and  the  career  of 
Captain  Lyon  becomes  a  portion  of  his 
country's  history  ;  the  obscurity  which  has 
shrouded  so  many  years  of  his  life  suddenly 
changes  to  a  blaze  of  publicity,  in  the  midst 
of  which  he  appears  as  a  hero.  From  this 
time  there  is  no  want  of  material  for  his 
biography,  but  rather  an  embarras  du 
richesse  /  for  during  the  last  five  months  the 
journals  all  over  the  land  have  been  full  of 
him — his  plans  and  movements,  his  victo 
ries,  and  his  death.  We  shall  use  them 
freely  in  the  rest  of  this  sketch,  trusting 
that  the  facts  which  it  contains  will  excuse 
its  lack  of  originality. 

The  prompter's  bell  rang  on  the  7th  of 
May,  1861,  and,  the  curtain  rising,  we  saw 
Captain  Lyon  on  the  stage  of  action  in 
Missouri.  He  was  in  St.  Louis,  in  com 
mand  of  the  Arsenal.  The  Police  Com 
missioners  demanded  the  removal  of  the 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  27 

United  States  troops  from  all  the  places 
occupied  by  them  outside  the  Arsenal 
grounds.  Captain  Lyon  declined  compli 
ance  with  the  demand,  and  the  Commis 
sioners  referred  the  matter  to  the  Governor 
and  the  Legislature.  The  Commissioners 
alleged  that  such  occupancy  was  in  deroga 
tion  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the 
United  States ;  and.  in  rejoinder  Captain 
Lyon  inquired  what  provisions  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  were  thus  violated. 
The  Commissioners,  in  support  of  their  posi 
tion,  said  that  originally  "Missouri  had 
sovereign  and  exclusive  jurisdiction  over 
her  whole  territory,"  and  had  delegated  a 
portion  of  her  sovereignty  to  the  United 
States  over  certain  tracts  of  land  for  mili 
tary  purposes,  such  as  arsenals,  parks,  &c., 
and  the  conclusion  implied  was,  that  this 
was  the  extreme  limit  of  the  right  of  the 
United  States  Government  to  occupy  or 
touch  the  soil  of  the  sovereign  State  of 
Missouri. 

Whether  Captain  Lyon  finally  acceded 


23  MEMOIR  OP 

to  the  demand,  may  be  seen  by  the  fol 
lowing  article  from  the  St.  Louis  Ke- 
publican. 

ST.  Louis,  May  10. 

Unusual,  and  to  some  extent  alarming, 
activity  prevailed  early  yesterday  morning 
at  each  rendezvous  of  the  Home  Gruard  and 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Arsenal.  The  men 
recently  provided  with  arms  from  the 
Arsenal,  to  the  number  of  several  thousands, 
were  ordered,  we  understand,  to  be  at  their 
different  posts  at  12  o'clock,  in  readiness  to 
march  as  they  might  be  commanded.  A 
report  gained  some  currency  that  General 
Harney  was  expected  on  the  afternoon 
train,  and  that  the  troops  were  to  cross  the 
river  to  receive  him,  and  escort  him  to  the 
city.  Very  little  reliance,  however,  was 
placed  in  this  explanation  of  the  military 
movements,  and  at  about  2  o'clock  P.M.,  the 
whole  town  became  greatly  agitated  upon 
the  circulation  of  the  intelligence  that  some 
five  or  six  thousand  men  were  marching  up 
Market  Street,  under  arms,  in  the  direction 


NATHANIEL  LYOX.  29 

of  Camp  Jackson.  The  news  proved  to  be 
correct,  except  as  to  the  numbers,  and  in 
this  case  the  report  rather  under-estimated 
the  extent  of  the  force.  According  to  our 
best  information,  there  were  probably  not 
less  than  seven  thousand  men  under  Cap 
tain  Lyon  (commanding  the  United  States 
troops  at  this  post),  with  about  twenty 
pieces  of  artillery. 

The  troops,  as  stated  before,  marched  at 
quick  time  up  Market  Street,  and  on  arriv 
ing  near  Camp  Jackson,  rapidly  surrounded 
it,  planting  batteries  upon  all  the  heights 
overlooking  the  camp.  Long  files  of  men 
were  stationed  in  platoons  at  various  points 
on  every  side,  and  a  picket  guard  esta 
blished  covering  an  area  of  say  two  hun 
dred  yards.  The  guards,  with  fixed  bayo 
nets,  and  muskets  at  half  cock,  were  in 
structed  to  allow  none  to  pass  or  repass 
within  the  limits  thus  taken  up. 

By  this  time  an  immense  crowd  of  people 
had  assembled  in  the  vicinity,  having  gone 
thither  in  carriages,  buggies,  rail-cars,  bag- 


30  MEMOIR  OF 

gage-wagons,  on  horseback,  and  on  foot. 
Numbers  of  men  seized  rifles,  shot-guns,  or 
whatever  other  weapons  they  could  lay 
hands  upon,  and  rushed  pell-mell  to  the 
assistance  of  the  State  troops,  but  were,  of 
course,  obstructed  in  their  design.  The 
hills,  of  which  there  are  a  number  in  the 
neighborhood,  were  literally  black  with 
people — hundreds  of  ladies  and  children 
stationing  themselves  with  the  throng,  but, 
as  they  thought,  out  of  harm's  way.  - 

Gen.  Frost,  commanding  Camp  Jackson, 
received  the  intelligence  of  the  advance  of 
the  Arsenal  troops  with  equanimity,  but 
with  some  astonishment.  He  had  heard 
reports  that  it  was  the  design  of  Capt.  Lyon 
to  attack  his  camp,  but  was  not  at  first  dis 
posed  to  place  credence  in  them.  So  rapidly 
did  these  rumors  come  to  him,  however, 
that  yesterday  morning  he  addressed  Capt. 
L.  a  note,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  3]_ 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  CAMP  JACKSON, 
Missouri  Militia,  May  10, 1861. 

Captain  N.  LYON,  commanding  United  States 
Troops  in  and  about  St.  Louis  Arsenal. 

SIR  : — I  am  constantly  in  receipt  of  infor 
mation  that  you  contemplate  an  attack 
upon  my  camp,  whilst  I  understand  that 
you  are  impressed  with  the  idea  that  an 
attack  upon  the  Arsenal  and  United  States 
troops  is  intended  on  the  part  of  the  militia 
of  Missouri.  I  am  greatly  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  could  j  ustify  you  in  attacking  citizens 
of  the  United  States  who  are  in  the  lawful 
performance  of  duties  devolving  upon  them 
under  the  Constitution,  in  organizing  and 
instructing  the  militia  of  the  State  in  obe 
dience  to  her  laws,  and  therefore  have  been 
disposed  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  the 
information  I  have  received.  I  would  be 
glad  to  know  from  you  personally  whether 
there  is  any  truth  in  the  statements  that 
are  constantly  poured  into  my  ears.  So 
far  as  regards  any  hostility  being  intended 
towards  the  United  States,  or  its  property 


32  MEMOIR   OP 

or  representatives,  by  any  portion  of  my 
command,  or,  as  far  as  I  can  learn  (and  I 
think  I  am  fully  informed),  of  any  other 
part  of  the  State  forces,  I  can  say  positively 
that  the  idea  has  never  been  entertained. 
On  the  contrary,  prior  to  your  taking  com 
mand  of  the  Arsenal,  I  proffered  to  Major 
Bell,  then  in  command  of  the  very  few 
troops  constituting  its  guard,  the  service 
of  myself  and  all  my  command,  and,  if 
necessary,  the  whole  power  of  the  State,  to 
protect  the  United  States  in  the  full  posses 
sion  of  all  her  property.  Upon  Gen.  Har- 
ney's  taking  command  of  this  department, 
I  made  the  same  proffer  of  services  to  him, 
and  authorized  his  Adjutant-General,  Capt. 
Williams,  to  communicate  the  fact  that 
such  had  been  done  to  the  War  Depart 
ment.  I  have  had  no  occasion  since  to 
change  any  of  the  views  I  entertained  at 
that  tiaie,  neither  of  my  own  volition  nor 
through  orders  of  my  constitutional  com 
mander.  I  trust  that  after  this  explicit 
statement  we  may  be  able,  by  fully  under- 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  33 

standing  each  other,  to  keep  far  from  our 
borders  the  misfortunes  which  so  unhappily 
afflict  our  common  country. 

This  communication  will  be  handed  to 
you  by  Col.  Bowen,  my  Chief  of  Staff,  who 
will  be  able  to  explain  anything  not  fully 
set  forth  in  the  foregoing. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obe 
dient  servant, 

Brig.-Gen.  D.  M.  FROST, 
Commanding  Camp  Jackson,  M.  V.  M. 

Capt.  L.  refused  to  receive  the  above 
communication.  He  forwarded  Gen.  Frost 
the  following  about  the  time,  if  we  are  not 
mistaken,  of  the  surrounding  of  his  camp : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  UNITED  STATES  TROOPS, 
St.  Louis  (Mo.),  May  10, 1861. 

Gen.    D.    M.    FROST,   Commanding   Camp 
Jackson : 

SIR  :  Your  command  is  regarded  as  evi 
dently  hostile  towards  the  Government  of 
the  United  States. 

It  is,  for  the  most  part,  made  up  of  those 


34  MEMOIR  OF 

secessionists  who  have  openly  avowed 
their  hostility  to  the  General  Government, 
and  have  been  plotting  at  the  seizure  of 
its  property  and  the  overthrow  of  its 
authority.  You  are  openly  in  communi 
cation  with  the  so-called  Southern  Confede 
racy,  which  is  now  at  war  with  the  United 
States,  and  you  are  receiving  at  your  camp, 
from  the  said  Confederacy  and  under  its 
flag,  large  supplies  of  the  materiel  of  war, 
most  of  which  is  known  to  be  the  property 
of  the  United  States.  These  extraordinary 
preparations  plainly  indicate  none  other 
but  the  well-known  purpose  of  the  Gover 
nor  of  this  State,  under  whose  orders  you 
are  acting,  and  whose  purpose,  recently 
communicated  to  the  Legislature,  has  just 
been  responded  to  by  that  body  in  the  most 
unparalleled  legislation,  having  in  direct 
view  hostilities  to  the  General  Government 
and  co-operation  with  its  enemies. 

In  view  of  these  considerations,  and  ot 
your  failure  to  disperse  in  obedience  to  the 
proclamation  of  the  President,  and  of  the 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  35 

imminent  necessities  of  State  policy  and 
welfare,  and  the  obligations  imposed  upon 
me  by  instructions  from  Washington,  it  is 
my  duty  to  demand,  and  I  do  hereby 
demand  of  you  an  immediate  surrender  of 
your  command,  with  no  other  condition 
than  that  all  persons  surrendering  under 
this  demand  shall  be  humanely  and  kindly 
treated.  Believing  myself  prepared  to 
enforce  this  demand,  one  half-hour's  time, 
before  doing  so,  will  be  allowed  for  your 
compliance  therewith. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

N.  LYON, 
Capt.  2d  Infantry,  Com.  Troops. 

Immediately  on  the  receipt  of  the  fore 
going,  General  Frost  called  a  hasty  consul 
tation  of  the  officers  of  his  staff.  The  con 
clusion  arrived  at  was  that  the  brigade  was 
in  no  condition  to  make  resistance  to  a 
force  so  numerically  superior,  and  that  only 
one  course  could  be  pursued — a  surrender. 

The  demand  of  Capt.  Lyon  was  accord- 


36  MEMOIR   OF 

ingly  agreed  to.  The  State  troops  were 
therefore  made  prisoners  of  war,  but  an 
offer  was  made  to  release  them  on  con 
dition  that  they  would  take  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  would  swear  not  to  take  up 
arms  against  the  Government.  These  terms 
were  made  known  to  the  several  commands 
and  the  opportunity  given  to  all  who  might 
feel  disposed  to  accede  to  them  to  do  so. 
Some  eight  or  ten  men  signified  their  will 
ingness;  but  the  remainder,  about  eight 
hundred,  preferred,  under  the  circum 
stances,  to  become  prisoners.  (A  number 
of  the  troops  were  absent  from  the  camp 
in  the  city  on  leave.)  Those  who  declined 
to  take  the  prescribed  oath,  said  that  they 
had  already  sworn  allegiance  to  the  United 
States  and  to  defend  the  Government,  and 
to  repeat  it  now  would  be  to  admit  that 
they  had  been  in  rebellion,  which  they 
would  not  concede. 

The  preparations  for  the  sui  rer.der  and 
for  marching,  as  prisoners,  under  the  escort 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  37 

of  the  Arsenal  troops,  occupied  an  hour  or 
two.  About  half-past  five  the  prisoners  left 
the  grove  and  entered  the  road,  the  United 
States  soldiers  inclosing  them  by  a  single 
file  stretched  along  each  side  of  the  line. 
A  halt  was  ordered  and  the  troops  remained 
standing  in  the  position  they  had  deployed 
into  on  the  road.  The  head  of  the  column 
at  the  time  rested  opposite  a  small  hill  on 
the  left  as  you  approach  the  city,  and  the 
rear  was  on  a  line  with  the  entrance  to  the 
grove.  Vast  crowds  of  people  covered  the 
surrounding  grounds  and  every  fence  and 
housetop  in  the  vicinity.  Suddenly  the 
sharp  reports  of  several  firearms  were  heard 
from  the  front  of  the  column,  and  the  spec 
tators  that  lined  the  adjacent  hill  were 
seen  fleeing  in  the  greatest  dismay  and 
terror.  It  appeared  that  several  members 
of  one  of  the  German  companies,  on  being 
pressed  by  the  crowd  and  receiving  some 
blows  from  them,  turned  and  discharged 
their  pieces.  Fortunately  no  one  was  in 
jured,  and  the  soldiers  who  had  done  the 


38  MEMOIR  OF 

act  were  at  once  placed  under  arrest. 
Hardly,  however,  liad  tranquillity  been 
restored,  when  volley  after  volley  of  rifle 
reports  were  suddenly  heard  from  the 
extreme  rear  ranks,  and  men,  women,  and 
children  were  beheld  running  wildly  and 
frantically  away  from  the  scene.  Many, 
while  running,  were  suddenly  struck  to  the 
sod,  and  the  wounded  and  dying  made  the 
late  beautiful  field  look  like  a  battle-ground. 
The  wounded,  who  were  unable  to  be 
moved,  were  suitably  cared  for  on  the 
grounds.  The  total  number  killed  and  in 
jured  was  about  twenty -five.  It  was 
reported  that  the  Arsenal  troops  were 
attacked  with  stones,  and  a  couple  of  shots 
discharged  at  them  by  the  crowd  before 
they  fired.  The  most  of  the  people  ex 
posed  to  the  fire  of  the  soldiers  were  citizens, 
with  their  wives  and  children,  who  were 
merely  spectators,  and  took  no  part  in  any 
demonstration  whatever.  The  firing  was 
said  to  have  been  done  by  Boernstein's 
company,  and  at  the  command  of  an  officer. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  39 

The  United  States  troops  are  now  in  pos 
session  of  Camp  Jackson,  with  all  the 
equipage,  tents,  provisions,  &c.  The  pri 
soners  of  war  are,  we  believe,  at  the 
Arsenal. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  describe  the 
intense  exhibition  of  feeling  which  was 
manifested  in  the  city.  All  the  most  fre 
quented  streets  and  avenues  were  thronged 
with  citizens  in  the  highest  state  of 
excitement,  and  loud  huzzas  and  occasional 
shots  were  heard  in  various  localities. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  of  restless 
human  beings  could  be  seen  from  almost 
every  point  on  Fourth  Street,  all  in  search 
of  the  latest  news.  Imprecations,  loud 
and  long,  were  hurled  into  the  darkening 
air,  and  the  most  unanimous  resentment 
was  expressed  on  all  sides  at  the  manner  of 
firing  into  the  harmless  crowds  near  Camp 
Jackson.  Hon.  J.  R.  Barret,  Major  Uriel 
Wright,  and  other  speakers  addressed  a  large 
and  intensely  excited  crowd  in  front  of 
the  Planters'  House,  and  other  well-known 


40  MEMOIR   OF 

citizens  were  similarly  engaged  at  various 
other  points  in  the  city.  All  the  drinking 
saloons,  restaurants,  and  other  public  resorts 
of  similar  character  were  closed  by  their 
proprietors,  almost  simultaneously,  at  dark ; 
and  the  windows  of  private  dwellings  were 
fastened  in  fear  of  a  general  riot.  Theatres 
and  other  public  places  of  amusement  were 
entirely  out  of  the  question,  and  nobody 
was  near  them.  Matters  of  graver  import 
were  occupying  the  minds  of  the  citizens, 
and  everything  but  the  present  excitement 
was  banished  from  their  thoughts.  Crowds 
of  men  rushed  through  the  principal  tho 
roughfares,  bearing  banners  and  devices 
suitable  to  their  several  fancies,  and  by 
turns  cheering  and  groaning.  Some  were 
armed  and  others  were  not  armed,  and  all 
seemed  anxious  to  be  at  work.  A  charge 
was  made  on  the  gun  store  of  H.  E.  Dimick, 
on  Main  Street,  the  door  was  broken  open, 
and  the  crowd  secured  fifteen  or  twenty 
guns  before  a  sufficent  number  of  police 
could  be  collected  to  arrest  their  proceedings. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  41 

Chief  McDonougli  marched  down  with 
about  twenty  policemen,  armed  with  mus 
kets,  and  succeeded  in  dispersing  the  mob 
and  protecting  the  premises  from  further 
molestation.  Squads  of  armed  policemen 
were  stationed  at  several  of  the  most  public 
corners,  and  the  offices  of  the  Missouri 
Democrat  and  Anzeiger  des  Westens  were 
placed  under  guard  for  protection. 

Four  days  later  General  Harney,  who  had 
assumed  the  command  of  the  Department, 
issued  a  proclamation  to  the  people  of  Mi 
chigan,  in  which  he  alluded  to  Captain 
Lyon  and  his  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  : 

u  It  is  not  proper,"  he  said,  "  for  me  to 
comment  upon  the  official  conduct  of  my 
predecessor  in  command  of  this  Depart 
ment,  but  it  is  right  and  proper  for  the 
people  of  Missouri  to  know  that  the  main 
avenue  of  Camp  Jackson,  recently  under 
command  of  General  Frost,  had  the  name 
of  Davis,  and  a  principal  street  of  the  same 
camp  that  of  Beauregard ;  and  that  a  body 
of  men  had  been  received  into  that  camp 


42  MEMOIR  OF 

by  its  commander,  which  had  been  notori 
ously  organized  in  the  interests  of  the  seces 
sionists,  the  men  openly  wearing  the  dress 
and  badge  distinguishing  the  army  of  the 
so-called  Southern  Confederacy.  It  is  also 
a  notorious  fact  that  a  quantity  of  arms 
had  been  received  into  the  camp,  which 
were  unlawfully  taken  from  the  United 
States  Arsenal  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  sur 
reptitiously  passed  up  the  river  in  boxes 
marked  marble. 

"  Upon  facts  like  these,  and  having  in 
view  what  occurred  at  Liberty,  the  people 
can  draw  their  own  inferences,  and  it  can 
not  be  difficult  for  any  one  to  arrive  at  a 
correct  conclusion  as  to  the  character  and 
ultimate  purpose  of  that  encampment.  No 
government  in  the  world  would  be  entitled 
to  respect  that  would  tolerate  for  a  moment 
such  openly  treasonable  preparations." 

The  same  day  the  first  four  regiments  of 
the  United  States  Volunteers  were  formed 
into  a  brigade,  as  the  1st  Brigade  Missouri 
Volunteers,  and  Captain  Lyon  was  elected 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  43 

their  Brigadier-General.  The  next  day  he 
sent  an  expedition  against  Potosi,  for  the 
purpose  of  overawing  the  secessionists  there, 
who  were  driving  the  Union  men  from 
their  homes.  It  was  perfectly  successful, 
fifty  or  more  secessionists  being  taken, 
though  afterwards  released  on  their  parole 
of  honor ;  a  lead  manufactory  broken  up, 
and  one  John  Dean — not  the  Milesian  gen 
tleman  of  whom  we  have  all  heard,  in  con 
nexion  with  the  fair  damsel  Mary  Ann — 
but  the  owner  of  the  lead  manufactory 
aforesaid,  captured  and  held ;  a  company 
of  secession  cavalry  put  to  flight,  and  a 
rebel  flag  seized  as  a  trophy,  after  which 
the  company  returned  to  St.  Louis  in 
triumph. 

On  the  21st  of  May  the  loyal  portion  of 
the  community  was  startled  with  the  intel 
ligence  that  General  Harney  had  entered 
into  an  arrangement  with  General  Sterling 
Price,  the  commander  of  the  Missouri  Mili 
tia,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  pub 
lic  peace.  General  Price  pledged  the  whole 


44  MEMOIR   OP 

power  of  the  State  officers  to  maintain  order 
among  the  people  of  the  State,  and  General 
Harney  declared  that  this  object  being 
assured,  he  could  have  no  occasion,  as  he 
had  no  wish,  to  make  military  movements, 
which  might  otherwise  create  excitement 
and  jealousies  which  he  most  earnestly 
desired  to  avoid. 

The  impression  prevailed  that  General 
Harney  had  been  overreached  by  the  Seces 
sionists,  which  was  the  case,  but  no  fears 
were  entertained  in  regard  to  General 
Lyon,  whose  remarkable  energy  and  acute- 
ness  were  every  day  more  manifest.  He 
ordered  the  steamer  J.  C.  Swan  to  be  seized 
at  Harlow's  Landing,  thirty  miles  below  St. 
Louis,  and  brought  to  the  St.  Louis  Arsenal. 
This  was  the  steamer  that  brought  the  arms 
from  Baton  Rouge,  which  were  captured 
by  him  at  Camp  Jackson.  About  5,000 
pounds  of  lead,  en  route  for  the  South,  were 
also  seized  at  Ironton,  on  the  Iron  Moun 
tain  Railroad.  Some  resistance  was  offered 
by  a  party  of  citizens,  and  several  shots 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  45 

were  fired  on  botli  sides,  but  nobody  was 
hurt. 

This  was  on  the  22d,  the  day  after  Har- 
ney  and  Price  had  made  their  arrangements 
for  a  peace.  Nine  days  later  the  former 
was  recalled  by  the  authorities  in  Wash 
ington,  and  General  Lyon  was  left  in  com 
mand  of  the  Department.  Having  by  this 
time  had  a  taste  of  his  quality,  the  Seces 
sionists  began  to  be  alarmed,  and  not  with 
out  reason,  as  it  was  clear  that  he  was 
strengthening  himself  to  meet  the  exigen 
cies  of  his  position.  On  the  4th  of  June 
General  Price  issued  a  proclamation  to  the 
Brigadier-Generals  commanding  the  several 
military  districts  in  Missouri,  in  which  he 
expressed 'his  desire  that  the  people  of  that 
State  should  exercise  the  right  to  choose 
their  own  position  in  any  contest  which 
might  be  forced  upon  them,  unaided  by 
any  military  force  whatever,  and  spoke  of 
the  armistice,  as  it  were,  into  which  he  had 
wheedled  the  unsuspecting  Harney. 

"  The  Federal  Government,  however,"  he 


46  MEMOIR  OF 

said,  "has  thought  proper  to  remove  General 
Harney  from  the  command  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  the  West,  but  as  the  successor  of 
General  Harney  will  certainly  consider 
himself  and  his  Government  in  honor  bound 
to  carry  out  this  agreement  in  good  faith,  I 
feel  assured  that  his  removal  should  give  no 
cause  of  uneasiness  to  our  citizens  for  the 
security  of  their  liberties  and  property.  I 
intend,  on  my  part,  to  adhere  both  in  its 
spirit  and  to  the  letter.  The  rumor  in  cir 
culation,  that  it  is  the  intention  of  the  offi 
cers  now  in  command  of  this  Department 
to  disarm  those  of  our  citizens  who  do  not 
agree  in  opinion  with  the  Administration 
at  Washington,  and  put  arms  in  the  hands 
of  those  who,  in  some  localities  of  this  State, 
are  supposed  to  sympathize  with  the  views 
of  the  Federal  Government,  are,  I  trust, 
unfounded.  The  purpose  of  such  a  move 
ment  could  not  be  misunderstood,  and  it 
would  not  only  be  a  violation  of  the  agree 
ment  referred  to,  and  an  equally  plain  vio 
lation  of  our  constitutional  right,  but  a  gross 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  47 

indignity  to  the  citizens  of  the  State,  which 
would  be  resisted  to  the  last  extremity." 

This  certainty  that  General  Lyon  would 
"  carry  out  this  agreement  in  good  faith," 
was  not  destined  to  be  realized,  and  the 
Secessionists  began  to  scatter  from  St.  Louis. 
A  week  later  they  sought  an  interview  with 
General  Lyon,  Governor  Jackson,  General 
Price,  and  other  prominent  traitors  coming 
from  Jefferson  City  for  that  purpose.  In 
the  course  of  the  interview,  which  lasted 
four  hours,  they  demanded  that  no  United 
States  troops  should  march  through,  or 
quarter  in  Missouri.  General  Lyon  refused 
to  agree  to  the  demand,  asserting  the  right 
of  the  Government  to  send  its  troops  wher 
ever  it  pleased,  and  promising  to  protect  all 
loyal  citizens  in  their  rights,  and  to  fight  all 
disloyal  ones,  whom  he  should  meet  in  arms. 
Governor  Jackson  returned  to  Jefferson 
City,  a  wiser,  and  possibly  a  sadder,  man. 
Learning  that  General  Lyon  was  on  the 
way  to  attack  him,  he  evacuated  that  place 
early  on  the  morning  of  the  14th.  Soon 


48  MEMOIR   OF 

after  sunrise  but  few  of  the  rebels  were  to 
be  found  in  the  town.  Orders  were  given 
by  Governor  Jackson  for  the  destruction  of 
the  Moreau  bridge,  four  miles  down  the 
Missouri,  and  General  Price  attended  to  the 
demolition  of  the  telegraph.  All  the  cars 
and  locomotives  that  could  be  used  were 
taken  by  the  rebels  in  their  flight,  and  as 
fast  as  they  crossed  streams  they  secured 
themselves  from  pursuit  by  burning  the 
bridges.  They  were  quite  cautious  in  con 
cealing  their  place  of  destination  from  the 
loyal  men  of  Jefferson,  but  it  was  evident 
that  they  were  bound  for  Booneville,  forty 
miles  above,  and  one  of  the  strongest  Seces 
sion  towns  in  the  State. 

General  Lyon  arrived  at  Jefferson  City 
shortly  after  their  departure,  and  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  the  mass  of  the  citi 
zens.  A  day  or  two  later  he  planned 
an  excursion,  which  is  thus  described  in  the 
St.  Louis  Deinocrat. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  49 


"  HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  WEST, 
BOONEVILLE,  Mo,  June  17, 1861. 

"  The  steamers  A.  McDowell,  latan,  and 
City  of  Louisiana,  left  Jefferson  City  yes 
terday  afternoon  at  two  o'clock,  and  readied 
a  point  a  mile  below  Providence  last  night, 
where  it  was  thought  best  to  lie  up  a  few 
hours. .  Three  companies  of  Boernstein's 
regiment,  under  his  command,  were  left  to 
protect  the  capital.  We  were  cheered  en 
thusiastically  by  the  little  town  of  Marion, 
as  we  passed  there  yesterday  evening.  This 
morning  we  took  an  early  start,  and 
reached  Rocheport  before  six  o'clock,  where 
we  made  a  short  stop,  but  found  the  people 
mostly  surly  and  not  disposed  to  be  com 
municative.  We  learned,  however,  that 
the  enemy  were  in  considerable  force  a  few 
miles  below  this  place,  and  preparing  to 
make  a  vigorous  defence.  Leaving  there, 
and  taking  the  steam  ferry-boat  Paul  Wil- 
cox  with  us,  we  ran  up  steadily  till  we  had 
passed  the  foot  of  the  island  eight  miles 
below  here,  and  seeing  a  battery  on  the 
3 


50  MEMOIR   OF 

bluffs,  and  -  scouts  hastening  to  report  our 
arrival,  we  fell  back  to  a  point  opposite  to 
the  foot  of  the  island,  and  at  seven  o'clock 
A.M.  disembarked  on  the  south  shore,  where 
the  bottom  land  between  the  river  and 
bluffs  is  some  mile  and  a  half  wide.  No 
traitors  were  visible  there,  and  the  troops 
at  once  took  the  river  road  for  this  city. 
Following  this  road  somewhat  over  a  mile 
and  a  half,  to  where  it  ascends  the  bluffs, 
several  shots  from  our  scouts  announced 
the  driving  in  of  the  enemy's  pickets. 

"  We  continued  to  ascend  a  gently  undu 
lating  slope  for  nearly  half  a  mile,  when 
the  enemy  were  reported  in  full  force  near 
the  summit  of  the  next  swell  of  ground, 
about  three  hundred  yards  from  our  front. 
The  enemy  were  exceedingly  well  posted, 
having  every  advantage  in  the  selection  of 
their  ground  ;  but,  as  you  will  see,  it  has 
been  clearly  demonstrated  that  one  seces 
sionist  is  hardly  superior  to  many  more 
than  his  equal  number. 

"Arriving  at  the   brow  of   the   ascent, 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  51 

Capt.  Tot  I  en  opened  the  engagement  by 
throwing  a  few  nine-pounder  explosives  into 
their  ranks,  while  the  infantry  filed  oblique 
riorht  and  left  and  commenced  a  terrible 

o 

volley  of  musketry,  which  was  for  a  short 
time  well  replied  to,  the  balls  flying  thick 
and  fast  about  our  ears,  and  occasionally 
wounding  a  man  on  our  side.  The  enemy 
were  posted  in  a  lane  running  towards  the 
river  from  the  road  along  which  the  grand 
army  of  the  United  States  were  advanc 
ing,  and  in  a  brick  house  on  the  north-east 
corner  of  the  junction  of  the  two  roads. 
A  couple  of  bombs  were  thrown  through 
the  east  wall  of  that  house,  scattering  the 
enemy  in  all  directions.  The  well-directed 
fire  of  the  German  Infantry,  Lieut.-Col. 
Schaeffer,  on  the  right,  and  Gen.  Lyon's 
company  of  regulars  and  part  of  Col. 
Blair's  regiment  on  the  left  of  the  road, 
soon  compelled  the  enemy  to  present  an 
inglorious  aspect.  They  clambered  over 
the  fence  into  a  field  of  wheat,  and  again 
formed  in  line  just  on  the  brow  of  the  hill. 


52  MEMOIR   OF 

They  then  'advanced  some  twenty  steps  to 
meet  us,  and  for  a  short  time  the  cannons 
were  worked  with  great  rapidity  and  effect. 
Just  at  this  time  the  enemy  opened  a  gall 
ing  fire  from  a  grove  just  on  the  left  of  our 
centre,  and  from  a  shed  beyond  and  still 
further  to  the  left. 

"The  skirmish  now  assumed  the  magnitude 
of  a  battle.  The  commander,  Gen.  Lyon, 
exhibited  the  most  remarkable  coolness, 
and  preserved  throughout  that  undisturbed 
presence  of  mind  shown  by  him  alike  in 
the  camp,  in  private  life,  and  on  the  field 
of  battle.  i  Forward  on  the  extreme 
right ;'  c  Give  them  another  shot,  Captain 
Totteri,7  echoed  above  the  roar  of  musketry 
clear  and  distinct,  from  the  lips  of  the 
general,  who  led  the  advancing  column. 
Our  force  was  2,000  in  all,  but  not  over 
500  participated  at  any  one  time  in  the 
battle.  The  enemy,  as  we  have  since  been 
reliably  informed,  were  over  4,000  strong, 
and  yet,  twenty  minutes  from  the  time 
wThen  the  first  gun  was  fired,  the  rebels 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  53 

were  in  full  retreat,  and  our  troops  occupy 
ing  the  ground  on  which  they  first  stood  in 
line.  The  consummate  cowardice  displayed 
by  the  "seeeshers"  will  be  more  fully 
understood  when  I  add  that  the  spurs  or 
successive  elevations  now  became  more 
abrupt,  steep,  and  rugged,  the  enemy  be 
ing  fully  acquainted  with  their  ground,  and 
strong  positions  behind  natural  defences, 
orchards,  and  clumps  of  trees  offering  them 
selves  every  few  yards.  Nothing  more, 
however,  was  seen  of  the  flying  fugitives 
until  about  one  mile  west  of  the  house  of 
William  M.  Adams,  where  they  were  first 
posted.  Just  there  was  Camp  Vest,  and  a 
considerable  force  seemed  prepared  to 
defend  the  approaches  to  it.  Meanwhile, 
a  shot  from  the  iron  howitzer  on  the 
McDowell  announced  to  us  that  Captain 
Voester,  with  his  artillery  men,  and  Captain 
Richardson's  company  of  infantry,  who 
were  left  in  charge  of  the  boats,  were  com 
mencing  operations  on  the  battery  over  a 
mile  below  Camp  West.  This  but  increased 


54:  MEMOIR   OP 

the  panic  among  the  invincible  (?)  traitors, 
and  Captain  Totten  had  but  to  give  them 
a  few  rounds  before  their  heels  were  again 
in  requisition,  and  Captains  Cole  and  Miller, 
at  the  head  of  their  companies,  entered  and 
took  possession  of  the  enemy's  deserted 
breakfast  tables. 

"  About  twenty  horses  had  by  this  time 
arrived  within  our  lines  with  vacant  sad 
dles,  and  the  corps  reportorial  were  succes 
sively  mounted  on  chosen  steeds.  The 
amount  of  plunder  secured  in  Camp  West, 
or  Bacon,  as  the  citizens  here  call  it,  from 
the  name  of  the  gentleman  owning  a  fine 
house  close  by,  was  very  large.  One  thou 
sand  two  hundred  shoes,  twenty  or  thirty 
tents,  quantities  of  ammunition,  some  fifty 
guns  of  various  patterns,  blankets,  coats, 
carpet  sacks,  and  two  secession  flags  were 
included  in  the  sum  total. 

"  Leaving  Captain  Cole  in  command  of  the 
camp,  we  pushed  on  towards  Booneville, 
chasing  the  cowardly  wretches  who  out- 
manned  us  two  to  one.  The  McDowell 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  55 

now  came  along  up  in  the  rear  and  off  to 
the  right  from,  our  troops,  and  having  a 
more  distinct  view  of  the  enemy  from  the 
river,  and  observing  their  intention  to  make 
another  stand  at  the  Fair  Grounds,  one 
mile  east  of  here,  where  the  State  has  an 
armory  extemporized,  Captain  Voester 
again  sent  them  his  compliments  from  the 
old  howitzer's  mouth,  which,  with  a  couple 
of  shots  from  Captain  Totten,  and  a  volley 
from  Lothrop's  detachment  of  rifles,  scat 
tered  the  now  thoroughly  alarmed  enemy 
in  all  directions.  Their  flight  through  the 
village  commenced  soon  after  8  o'clock,  and 
continued  till  after  11  o'clock.  Some  three 
hundred  crossed  the  river,  many  went  south, 
but  the  bulk  kept  on  westwardly.  A  good 
many  persons  were  taken  at  the  different 
points  of  battle,  but  it  is  believed  the 
enemy  secured  none  of  ours. 

"  Captain  Richardson  had  landed  below, 
and,  with  the  support  of  the  howitzer  from 
the  steamer  McDowell,  captured  their  bat 
tery,  consisting  of  two  6-pounders  (with 


56  MEMOIR   OF 

which  they  intended  to  sink  our  fleet), 
twenty  prisoners,  one  caisson,  and  eight 
horses  with  "military  saddles.  The  enemy 
did  not  fire  a  shot  from  their  cannon. 
Speaking  of  prizes,  the  brilliant  achieve 
ment  in  that  line  was  by  our  reverend 
friend,  W.  A.  Pill,  chaplain  of  the  First 
regiment.  He  had  charge  of  a  party  of 
four  men,  two  mounted  and  two  on  foot, 
with  which  to  take  charge  of  the  wounded. 
Ascending  the  brow  of  a  hill,  he  suddenly 
came  upon  a  company  of  twenty-four 
rebels,  armed  with  revolvers,  and  fully 
bent  upon  securing  a  place  of  safety  for 
their  carcasses.  Their  intentions,  however, 
were  considerably  modified,  when  the  par 
son  ordered  them  to  halt,  which  they  did, 
surrendering  their  arms.  Surrounded  by 
the  squad  of  five  men,  they  were  then 
marched  on  board  the  Louisiana,  prisoners 
of  war.  The  parson  also  captured  two 
other  secessionists  during  the  day,  and  at 
one  time,  needing  a  wagon  and  horses  for  the 
wounded,  and  finding  friendly  suggestions 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  57 

wasted  on  a  stubborn  old  rebel,  placed  a 
revolver  at  his  -head,  and  the  desired 
articles  were  forthcoming.  In  time  of 
peace  the  preacher  had  prepared  for  war. 

"  After  passing  the  Fair  Grounds,  our 
troops  came  slowly  towards  town.  They 
were  met  on  the  east  side  of  the  creek 
by  Judge  Miller  of  the  District  Court,  and 
other  prominent  citizens,  bearing  a  flag  of 
truce,  in  order  to  assure  our  troops  of 
friendly  feelings  sustained  by  three-fourths 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  if  possible  prevent 
the  shedding  of  innocent  blood.  They 
were  met  cordially  by  General  Lyon  and 
Colonel  Blair,  who  promised,  if  no  resistance 
was  made  to  their  entrance,  that  no  harm 
need  be  feared.  Major  O'Brien  soon  joined 
the  party  from  the  city,  and  formally  sur 
rendered  it  to  the  Federal  forces.  The 
troops  then  advanced,  headed  by  the  Major 
and  General  Lyon,  and  were  met  at  the 
principal  corner  of  the  street  by  a  party 
bearing  and  waving  that  beautiful  emblem 
under  which  our  armies  gather  and  march 


58  MEMOIR  OF 

forth  conquering  and  to  conquer.  The 
flag  party  cheered  the  troops,  who  lustily 
returned  the  compliment.  American  flags 
are  now  quite  thick  on  the  street,  and 
secessionists  are  nowhere. 

"The  enemy  had  two  regiments  of  1,800 
men,  under  command  of  Colonel  J.  S.  Mar- 
maduke  of  Arrow  Rock,  and  nine  hundred 
cavalry,  besides  other  companies  whose 
muster-rolls  have  not  been  captured. 
Horace  H.  Brand  was  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  Marmaduke's  regiment.  It  was  reported, 
and  for  some  time  generally  believed, 
that  he  was  among  the  dead,  but  he  has 
since  been  heard  from,  taking  a  meal 
several  miles  away.  Governor  Jackson 
was  also  seen  at  3  o'clock  this  afternoon, 
at  a  blacksmith's  shop,  about  fifteen  miles 
from  here.  General  Price  left  on  Sunday 
morning  on  the  steamer  H.  D.  Bacon  for 
Arrow  Rock.  His  liealth  was  very  poor 
when  he  left. 

"  One  can  hardly  imagine  the  joy  express 
ed  and  felt  by  the  loyal  citizens  when  the 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  59 

Federal  troops  entered  the  city.  Stores, 
which  had  been  closed  all  day,  began  to 
open,  the  national  flag  was  quickly  run 
up  on  a  secession  pole,  cheers  for  the 
Union,  Lyon,  Blair,  and  Lincoln,  were 
frequently  heard,  and  everything  betokened 
the  restoration  of  peace,  law,  and  order. 
True  men  say  that  had  the  troops  delayed 
ten  days  longer,  it  would  have  been  im 
possible  for  them  to  remain  in  safety. 
Irresponsible  vagabonds  had  been  taking 
guns  wherever  they  could  find  them,  and 
notifying  the  most  substantial  and  pros 
perous  citizens  to  leave.  As  a  specimen 
of  the  feeling  here,  Mr.  McPherson,  pro 
prietor  of  the  City  Hotel,  denounces  the 
whole  secession  movement  as  the  greatest 
crime  committed  since  the  crucifixion  of 
our  Saviour. 

"  At  one  time,  when  bullets  were  flying 
thick  and  General  Lyon  was  at  the  head 
of  the  column,  mounted,  he  undertook  to 
dismount,  that  his  position  might  be  a 
trifle  less  conspicuous,  when  his  horse 


(JO  MEMOIR   OP 

suddenly  jumped  with  fright,  throwing 
the  general  to  the  ground,  but  without 
injuring  him  seriously.  The  rumor  sud 
denly  spread  through  the  ranks  that 
General  Lyon  had  been  shot  from  his 
horse,  and  the  indignation  and  cries  of 
vengeance  were  terrific.  At  the  Fair 
Grounds  several  hundred  muskets  were 
seized  at  the  armory,  where  flint  locks 
were  being  altered.  Captain  Tot  ten  says 
lie  fired  about  100  rounds  of  ball,  shell, 
and  canister. 

"The  following  interesting  documents 
were  found  among  others  equally  interest 
ing  and  more  decidedly  treasonable  : 

"  HEAD-QUARTERS  FIRST  BEG'T  BIFLES,  M.  S.  GK, 
Booneville,  Mo.,  June  14,  1861. 


ORDERS,  ~No.  3.  —  The  com 
manders  of  companies  of  the  regiment  and 
of  the  troops  attached  will  bring  their 
companies  to  Booneville  with  the  greatest 
despatch.  They  will  proceed  to  move  the 
instant  this  order  is  received,  bringing 
with  them  all  arms  and  ammunition  it  is 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  61 

possible  to  procure.  The  expenses  of  said 
movements  will  be  paid  by  the  State. 
All  orders  of  a  prior  date  conflicting  with 
this  from  any  head-quarters  whatever  will 
be  disobeyed.  By  order  of 

"COLONEL  J.  S.  MARMADUKE. 
"  JOHN  W.  WOOD,  Adjutant." 

"  CAPTAIN — Hurry  on  day  and  night. 
Everybody,  citizens  and  soldiers,  must 
come,  bringing  their  arms  and  ammunition. 
Time  is  everything.  In  great  haste, 

"  J.  S.  MAKMADUKE." 

The  day  after  the  battle  General  Lyon 
released  his  prisoners,  most  of  whom  were 
young  men,  in  consideration  of  their  youth, 
and  of  the  deceit  that  had  been  practised 
upon  them,  requiring  their  pledge  not  again 
to  bear  arms  against  the  United  States. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3rd  of  July  he 
left  with  upwards  of  two  thousand  men  for 
the  Southwest,  whither  the  Secessionists 
were  swarming,  under  Price  and  the 
ubiquitous  Ben  McCullough.  His  force 


62  MEMOIR   OF 

increased  as  lie  advanced,  until  it  amounted 
to  ten  thousand  men.  He  had  about  that 
number  on  the  20th  at  Springfield,  but  from 
that  time  it  decreased,  the  term  for  which 
many  of  the  volunteers  had  enlisted  having 
expired.  On  the  1st  of  August  it  had 
dwindled  down  to  six  thousand. 

A  report  which  reached  him  at  this  time 
gave  rise  to  the  belief  that  General  McCul- 
lough  designed  to  attack  him.  at  Spring 
field,  by  two  columns  moving  from  Cassville 
and  Sarcoxie.  The  federal  scouts  reported 
their  force  at  about  fifteen  thousand  in  each 
division,  and  they  were  reported  within 
twenty  miles  of  the  town  and  advancing 
from  Cassville.  General  Lyon  ordered  his 
entire  command,  with  the  exception  of  a 
small  guard,  to  rendezvous  at  Crane  Creek, 
ten  miles  south  of  Springfield. 

"  The  march,"  says  one  who  participated  in 
it  (the  Western  War  Correspondent  of  Tlie 
World)  "  commenced  at  5  o'clock  on  the  after 
noon  of  the  1st.  The  baggage  wagons,  one 
hundred  and  eighty  in  number,  were  scat- 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  63 

tered  over  a  distance  of  three  miles.  The 
camp  at  Crane  Creek  was  reached  about 
10  o'clock,  the  men  marching  slowly  and 
making  frequent  halts  to  get  the  benefit  of 
shade  or  water. 

"  Early  next  morning,  after  making  a 
hasty  meal,  the  line  of  march  was  resumed. 
We  were  joined  by  the  division  from  Camp 
McClellan,  and,with  cavalry  and  skirmishers 
ahead,  pushed  on  as  fast  as  the  nature  of 
the  country  would  admit.  This  day,  like 
its  predecessor,  was  intensely  hot.  The 
extreme  temperature,  and  the  fine  dust 
which  enveloped  the  train  in  clouds,  pro 
duced  intolerable  thirst.  The  country  is  of 
the  hilly  kind  which  just  falls  below  the 
standard  of  mountainous.  After  leaving 
Springfield,  which  is  said  to  be  the  summit 
of  the  Bark  Mountains,  we  pass  along  the 
ridge  which  divides  the  waters  which  fall 
into  the  Missouri  and  White  rivers.  Streams 
there  were  none  to  mention ;  though  tracea 
ble  on  the  map,  they  are  at  this  season  only 
distinguishable  by  their  dry  rocky  beds. 


64  MEMOIR   OF 

Water  was  hardly  to  be  had,  the  few 
springs  and  wells  in  the  neighborhood 
being  either  emptied  by  drouth  or  by  the 
men.  The  ridges  and  sides  of  the  limestone 
hills  were  covered  for  the  most  part  with 
stunted  oak  saplings,  which  rarely  afforded 
shade  for  horse  and  rider.  The  midsum 
mer  sun  travelled  through  an  unclouded  sky 
like  a  ball  of  fire,  scorching  all  animated 
nature  in  his  way.  The  men,  however,  kept 
up  their  spirits  tolerably  well,  and  as  at 
every  few  miles  loyal  citizens  were  met, 
informing  us  that  the  enemy  was  but  a  few 
miles  ahead,  every  prospect  for  a  grand 
fight  was  the  common  opinion. 

"At  about  11  o'clock,  as  the  advanced 
guard  was  rising  the  crest  of  a  hill,  sixteen 
miles  from  here,  the  skirmishers  discovered 
several  mounted  men  in  the  road.  Word 
was  passed  back,  when  Captain  Totten 
ordered  a  six-pounder  to  the  front,  and  just 
as  the  men  were  in  the  act  of  leaving  the 
house  of  one  of  their  secession  friends  he 
sent  a  shell  by  the  gunpowder  line,  which 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  65 

burst  over  the  ho;;se.  When  this  unex 
pected  messenger  dropped  in  among  them 
they  scampered  away  down  the  hill,  so  that 
when  we  arrived  at  the  top  nothing  was  to 
be  seen  but  a  moving  cloud  of  dust.  A 
light  wagon,  loaded  with  cooked  provisions, 
was  discovered  on  the  road,  which  was 
shared  by  our  famished  men  and  eaten  with 
infinite  gusto.  Bedding  and  other  accou 
trements  were  found  around  the  buildings, 
indicating  a  lengthened  sojourn. 

"  Our  painful  march  was  then  continued 
with  more  caution,  the  woods  and  thickets 
being  examined  on  either  side  of  the  road 
for  ambuscades  and  surprises.  Arrived  at 
Dug  Springs,  some  three  miles  further,  we 
could  perceive  as  we  entered  the  valley 
by  one  hill  dense  columns  of  dust  moving 
in  va  ious  directions  along  the  base  and 
sides  of  the  hills  at  the  opposite  end.  The 
advance  continued,  the  column  drawn  up 
ready  for  action.  By  the  aid  of  glasses, 
bodies  of  men,  both  mounted  and  on  foot, 
could  be  seen,  and  presently  we  could  hear 


66  MEMOIR  OF 

the  sharp  crack  of  the  rifles  of  our  advanced 
guard.  The  flags  were  displayed,  and  all 
the  indications  seemed  to  point  to  a  great 
battle,  the  position  of  the  enemy  being 
a  strong  one,  and  his  force  evidently 
numerous. 

"  As  there  was  no  advance  from  the  valor 
ous  rebels,  spite  of  our  coaxing,  the  day  far 
spent,  and  the  prospect  for  camping  ground 
ahead  not  very  brilliant,  a  retrograde  move 
ment  was  ordered,  with  a  view  of  coaxing 
the  enemy  from  his  position. 

"  In  order  to  understand  the  position  of 
the  parties,  imagine  an  oblong  basin  of  five 
miles  in  length,  surrounded  by  hills  from 
which  spurs  projected  into  the  main  hollow, 
covered  with  occasional  thickets  and  oak 
openings.  The  winding  of  the  road  round 
the  spurs  had  the  effect  of  concealing  the 
strength  of  each  party  from  the  other,  so 
that  from  the  top  of  each  successive  ridge 
could  be  seen  the  rear  of  the  enemy's  forces. 
At  about  five  o'clock  a  brisk  interchange 
of  shots  was  commenced  by  our  skirmish- 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  67 

ers,  Captain  Steele's  regular  infantry  taking 
the  lead  on  the  left,  supported  by  a  com 
pany  of  cavalry,  the  rest  of  the  column 
being  back  some  distance.  Presently  we 
could  see  a  column  of  infantry  approaching 
from  the  woods  with  the  design  of  cutting 
off  our  infantry.  Capt.  Stanley  immedi 
ately  drew  up  his  men,  and,  as  soon  as 
within  range,  they  opened  fire  from  their 
Sharp's  carbines,  when  several  volleys  were 
exchanged.  The  number  of  the  enemy's 
infantry  was  seemingly  about  five  hundred ; 
our  cavalry  not  quite  a  hundred  and  fifty. 
The  infantry  kept  up  the  firing  for  some 
minutes,  when  some  enthusiastic  lieutenant 
giving  the  order  to  u  charge,"  some  twenty- 
five  of  the  gallant  regulars  rushed  forward 
upon  the  enemy's  lines,  and,  dashing  aside 
the  threatening  bayonets  of  the  sturdy 
rebels,  hewed  down  the  ranks  with  fearful 
slaughter.  Capt.  Stanley,  who  was  amazed 
at  the  temerity  of  the  little  band,  was 
obliged  to  sustain  the  order,  but  before  he 
could  reach  his  little  company,  they  had 


68  MEMOIR   OF 

broken  the  ranks  of  the  cowards,  who  out 
numbered  them  as  twenty  to  one.  Some 
of  the  rebels  who  were  wounded  asked,  in 
utter  astonishment,  '  Whether  these  were 
men  or  devils — they  fight  so  ? ' 

"  The  ground  was  left  in  our  possession, 
being  strewn  with  muskets,  shot-guns,  pis 
tols,  etc.  Our  men  seized  some  fifteen  mus 
kets  and  the  same  number  of  horses  and 
mules,  and  rode  off,  when  a  large  force  of 
the  enemy's  cavalry  was  seen  approaching 
from  the  woods,  numbering  some  three 
hundred  or  more.  At  the  instant  when 
they  had  formed  in  an  angle,  Capt.  Totten, 
who  had  planted  a  six  and  a  twelve-pounder 
upon  the  overlooking  hill,  sent  a  shell  right 
over  them  ;  in  another  minute  the  second 
—  a  twelve-pound  shell,  a  very  marvel  of 
gunnery  practice — which  landed  right  at 
their  feet,  exploding,  and  scattering  the 
whole  body  in  the  most  admired  disorder. 
The  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  were  sent 
into  their  midst.  The  horsemen  could  not 
control  their  horses,  and  in  a  minute  not  an 


NATHANIEL  LYON  69 

enemy  was  to  be  seen  anywhere.  Captain 
Granger,  of  the  artillery,  was  so  pleased 
with  the  execution  that  he  rode  out  to  the 
spot,  where  he  discovered  several  pools  of 
blood  on  the  ground,  as  if  the  shell  had 
done  great  damage,  one  double-barrelled 
shot-gun  being  bent  by  the  fragments  of 
the  shell. 

"  The  praise  of  all  tongues  was  upon  the 
magnificent  charge  of  our  cavalry.  The 
men,  actuated  by  a  supreme  disdain  for  the 
novices  who  had  but  recently  left  the  plough 
for  the  musket,  determined  to  give  them  a 
real  taste  of  war  at  the  onset ;  and  they 
must  have  given  the  poor  deluded  fools  a 
bitter  foretaste,  with  their  navy  revolvers 
and  carbines.  Two  of  the  lieutenants  re 
turned  with  their  swords  stained,  with  the 
blood  of  men  they  had  run  through  and 
through,  up  to  the  hilt.  One  horse  which 
was  led  home,  was  pierced  by  nine  balls  ; 
another  with  sides  so  covered  with  gore  as 
to  conceal  the  wounds.  Four  of  their 
wounded  men  were  afterwards  picked  up 


70  MEMOIR  OP 

on  the  ground,  some  of  them  fatally.  Un 
fortunately  our  loss,  as  might  be  expected, 
was  severe.  Four  of  our  gallant  regulars 
were  brought  in  dead,  and  five  wounded, 
one  of  which  has  since  died.  The  loss  of 
the  enemy  cannot  be  far  from  forty,  and 
their  wounded  fully  a  hundred.  Secession 
accounts  admit  their  loss  was  heavy. 

"  Al  hough  the  entire  action  cannot  be 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  great  battle,  for 
the  whole  affair  lasted  less  than  half  an 
hour,  it  was  in  reality  a  great  triumph. 
Our  advanced  cavalry  was  alone  engaged 
on  our  part,  and  they  successfully  fought 
and  drove  off  a  force  ten  times  their  num 
ber.  It  moreover  revealed  the  fighting 
animus  of  the  enemy  ;  it  revealed  the  state 
of  their  armament,  and  afforded  a  brilliant 
example  for  our  expectant  troops. 

"All  supposed,  when  the  crack  of  the  can 
non  and  whistling  of  shell  were  heard  in 
such  quick  succession,  that  the  battle  was 
begun,  and  that  a  trial  at  arms  was  to  ensue 
ere  nightfall.  Our  men  were  under  arms, 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  71 

cannon  in  position,  until  the  news  of  the 
inglorious  retreat  of  the  vaunting  rebels 
dispelled  the  prospect.  The  camps  were 
then  pitched  and  the  necessary  precautions 
taken  against  attack.  ~No  description  can 
do  justice  to  the  labors  of  the  day.  When 
the  morning  dawned  the  men  were  put  in 
motion.  The  heat  was  insufferable,  the 
incessant  running  about  among  the  brush 
for  miles  on  both  sides  of  the  main  road 
created  the  most  suffocating  thirst.  The 
tongue  became  swollen,  the  sweat  was  blind 
ing,  and  the  dust  profuse.  Even  the  hardiest 
of  men  were  glad  to  find  shelter  for  a  mo 
ment  in  the  shade  of  some  canebrake.  The 
few  wells  or  springs  in  the  vicinity  had 
given  out.  Water  was  not  to  be  had ; 
towards  evening  two  dollars  and  a  half  being 
offered  for  a  canteen  of  warm  ditch  water. 
Many  were  victims  of  sunstroke  and  exhaus 
tion,  and  never  were  a  set  of  men  more 
grateful  than  when  the  burning  sun  cast  his 
declining  shadow  over  the  western  hills. 
The  night  was  broken  occasionally  by  the 


72  MEMOIR   OF 

report  of  musket  shots  from  our  sentinels. 
Two  or  three  stragglers  were  brought  in  as 
prisoners,  who  stated  that  they  belonged  to 
the  command  of  General  Rains,  and  seemed 
glad  enough  to  be  captured.  They  reported 
that  the  army  of  McCullough  was  five  miles 
in  the  rear,  and  that  accessions  were  being 
recruited  from  all  the  adjoining  counties. 
This  information  agreed  with  that  gained 
from  the  prisoners,  and  betrayed  the  weak 
ness  of  the  enemy ;  said  they, i  we  have  had 
nothing  but  fresh  beef  and  unbolted  flour 
to  eat  for  many  days.'  They  were  forced 
northward  by  starvation,  and  the  Union 
men  must  either  flee  or  be  taken  prisoners, 
while  the  state  rights  gentry  must  join  their 
force  or  be  plundered ;  they  would  find,  how 
ever,  that  plunder  attended  either  alterna 
tive.  In  this  way  they  had  recruited  thou 
sands,  leaving  a  desert  behind  them  more 
complete  than  the  locusts.  Forage,  wheat, 
eatables  and  drinkables,  in  any  quantity, 
did  not  escape  them.  Clothing  and  trink 
ets  of  little  or  no  value,  all  seized.  They 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  73 

are  the  most  complete  land  pirates  this  con 
tinent  ever  saw. 

"  August  2. — We  resumed  the  line  of 
march  at  sunrise ;  the  ground  of  yesterday's 
operations  was  carefully  gone  over  in  search 
of  the  much  dreaded  'masked  latteries.' 
Gaining  the  summit  of  the  hill  from  which 
the  rebels  had  sallied  on  the  day  previous, 
we  found  a  sad  spectacle.  A  house  by  the 
wayside,  with  four  wounded  men  in  the  first 
room,  in  the  second  one  severely  wounded 
in  the  back  and  shoulder,  in  the  third  a 
corpse  stretched  out  with  the  face  quite 
black.  At  the  well,  close  by  the  house,  the 
pools  in  the  little  stream  were  red  as  blood 
for  thirty  yards,  where  they  had  washed 
their  wounded.  The  men  stated  they  had 
only  been  picked  off  the  field  that  morning, 
and  that  there  were  many  more  who  had 
been  carried  off  with  the  retreating  army. 
They  confirmed  substantially  the  reports  of 
the  captives. 

"  Descending  into  the  next  valley, we  could 
just  perceive,  by  the  dense  clouds  of  dust. 


74  MEMOIR   OF 

that  the  enemy  were  but  a  few  miles  ahead. 
Two  guns  were  placed  upon  an  eminence ; 
upon  seeing  a  column  of  troops  moving  up 
a  ravine,  and  when  at  the  distance  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile,  we  opened  fire  upon  them^ 
when  they  rapidly  retreated.  We  after 
wards  learned  that  this  was  a  scouting  party, 
who  had  crossed  over  from  Marions ville, 
after  taking  what  provisions  and  men  they 
could  press  into  their  service  by  their  very 
summary  process.  The  shell  struck  the 
chimney  of  a  house  in  which  the  officers 
were  dining.  They  did  not  wait  for  the 
dessert  to  be  served. 

"Arriving  at  Curran,  twenty-six  miles 
from  Springfield,  we  encamped,  to  take 
advantage  of  the  good  water.  Our  posi 
tion  was  much  exposed,  but  from  the  exhi 
bitions  of  valor  for.  the  past  few  days  we 
stood  in  little  fear  of  an  attack.  Five 
prisoners  were  brought  in  by  our  skir 
mishers,  one  of  which,  upon  being  ques 
tioned  by  General  Lyon,  manifested  consi 
derable  impertinence';  his  actions  being 


NATHANIEL  LTON.  75 

suspicious  lie  was  carefully  watched,  and 
when  told  to  rise  from  the  ground  a  revolver 
was  found  under  him.  A  deserter  came  in 
from  the  other  camp,  who  stated  that  he 
was  impressed  into  their  service  in  Missouri ; 
their  camp  was  six  miles  to  the  north,  and 
strongly  intrenched;  had  eight  pieces  of 
cannon,  and,  though  his  comrades  said  they 
had  fifteen  thousand  men,  his  opinion  was 
about  six  or  seven  thousand.  Quite  a  little 
excitement  was  created  throughout  the 
camp  in  the  morning  by  a  report  that  we 
were  surrounded,  which  was  caused  by  the 
appearance  of  troops  on  our  rear — doubt 
less  a  portion  of  the  roving  bands  desirous 
of  rejoining  their  command.  A  squad  of 
about  forty  entered  our  column  and  chat 
ted  with  our  men  under  the  impression  that 
they  were  in  the  army  of  Rains,  until  they 
saw  our  artillery  coming  up,  when  they 
inquired  c  Whose  troops  we  were  ?'  Upon 
being  informed  i  General  LyonV  they 
made  a  hasty  exit  into  the  dense  woods, 
one  of  the  staff  officers  ordering  the  men 


76  MEMOIR  OS1 

to  fire  upon  them,  but  they  had  made  good 
their  escape. 

u  Our  troops  had  mistaken  them  also  for 
the  4  Home  Guards,'  which  are  accustomed 
to  act  as  guides  and  scouts,  and  thus  they 
missed,  by  a  narrow  chance,  the  opportu 
nity  of  bagging  the  whole  of  them,  and 
their  horses  and  muskets. 

"  The  names  of  our  killed  are  Corporal 
Klein,  privates  Givens  and  Devlin. 

"  SPRINGFIELD,  August  6th. 

"  After  another  day's  hardship  and  night's 
repose,  the  morning  dawned  upon  us  with 
its  fierce  glare.  General  Lyon  finding  him 
self  short  of  provisions,  his  men  weary  and 
footsore,  many  of  them  sick  from  intempe 
rate  use  of  water  and  green  fruits,  with  a 
powerful  enemy  encamped  in  front,  whom 
he  could  not  chase  by  reason  of  the  pre 
cautions  against  surprises  and  flank  move 
ments — moreover,  a  large  force  of  the  ene 
my  in  the  direction  of  Sarcoxie,  and  the 
necessity  of  keeping  open  his  communica 
tion  with  Springfield — called  a  consultation 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  77 

with.  Brigadier-Generals  Sweeny,  Siegel ; 
Majors  Schofield,  Shepherd,  Conant,  Stur- 
gis ;  Captains  Totten  and  Shaeffer,  when  it 
was  determined  to  retire  towards  Spring 
field.  This  conclusion  seems  to  be  well 
founded,  when  we  reflect  that  the  provi 
sions  for  such  an  army  must  be  transported 
from  Holla  at  a  great  risk  of  capture. 
Nothing  could  be  found  either  for  man  or 
horse  on  the  track  of  the  rebels. 

"  Hardly  had  the  decision  been  declared, 
when  one  of  the  cavalry  scouts  announced 
that  he  had  witnessed  the  departure  of 
McCullougli's  camp  in  the  direction  of  Sar- 
coxie,  describing  the  train  as  long  as  that 
usually  pertaining  to  an  army  of  seven 
thousand  men. 

u  On  Sunday  morning  we  retraced  our 
steps,  leaving  Curran,  Stone  co.,  the  furthest 
point  of  our  expedition,  with  reluctance  at 
not  meeting  the  object  of  our  search,  but 
with  hearts  gladdened  that  we  were  once 
more  to  be  placed  beyond  the  danger  of 
starvation.  We  marched  thirteen  miles 


78  MEMOIR   OF 

during  the  day  in  a  broiling  sun.  Several 
of  our  men  fell  from  the  fatigue  and  heat ; 
two  reported  died  from  sun-stroke. 

"  At  Cane  Creek  we  found  another  de 
serter  who  had  been  forced  into  a  Louisi 
ana  regiment,  and  had  accepted  the  first 
chance  to  escape.  He  is  a  German,  and 
has  a  brother  in  the  Missouri  Volunteers. 
His  statements  confirm  those  of  the  other 
deserter.  His  regiment  left  New  Orleans 
one  thousand  and  fifty  strong,  and  when 
he  left  it,  death,  disease,  and  desertion  had 
reduced  it  to  seven  hundred.  His  regi 
ment  was  well  drilled  and  armed.  Three 
Arkansas  regiments  were  armed  with  old 
smooth-bore  muskets ;  the  balance  with 
odds  and  ends  of  all  kinds,  some  few  being 
without  arms.  Two  Texan  regiments  are 
daily  expected,  with  two  brass  guns.  He 
gives  a  deplorable  account  of  their  com 
missariat  and  subsistence  departments.  He 
is  kept  in  close  custody,  both  for  his  own 
protection,  and  as  a  precaution  against 
frand. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  79 

"We  reached  Springfield  to-day,  and 
were  much,  surprised  to  learn  that  the 
inhabitants  had  been  the  victims  of  the 
most  unreasonable  fright — a  report  having 
been  spread  during  the  night  that  the  ene 
my  was  about  to  attack  the  town.  Singu 
larly  enough  nearly  all  the  pickets  came 
into  town,  instead  of  remaining  at  their 
posts.  I  ought  in  justice  to  say  that  these 
were  i  Home  Guards,'  who  have  been 
mustered  into  the  service  to  meet  the  emer 
gency. 

"  We  brought  in  sixteen  prisoners,  most 
of  them  taken  in  a  hostile  attitude  towards 
the  government.  We  witnessed  a  very 
salutary  way  of  treating  rebels.  Two  or 
three  prominent  secessionists,  who  at  one 
time  were  accounted  respectable,  are  busily 
hauling  the  debris  from  the  streets,  and 
performing  other  such  municipal  duties 
under  guard,  greatly  to  the  edification 
of  a  crowd  of  boys  and  negroes.  We  think 
this  is  the  happy  medium  between  hanging 
our  prisoners  and  swearing  them." 


30  MEMOIR   OP 

The  position  of  General  Lyon  was  a  criti 
cal  one,  in  spite  of  the  victory  he  had  won, 
he  was  so  largely  out-numbered  by  the 
enemy.  "Why  he  was  not  reinforced  by 
General  Fremont,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
Department,  has  not  yet  been  explained. 
Perhaps  he  shared  the  delusion  under  which 
most  of  us  labored  prior  to  Bull's  Run — the 
childish  folly  of  underrating  our  enemy. 
Not  so  General  Lyon,  for  knowing  the  strait 
in  which  he  stood,  he  telegraphed  from 
Springfield  to  Washington  to  General  Fre 
mont,  before  the  latter  had  left  New  York 
for  St.  Louis,  imploring  succor.  And  after 
he  had  reached  St.  Louis,  he  sent  three  or 
four  special  messengers  thither  for  the  same 
purpose,  but  they  failed.  One  of  these 
agents  was  a  former  Secretary  of  State, 
another  a  member  of  Congress,  both  from 
the  south-western  part  of  the  State,  where 
the  danger  lay.  Governor  Gamble,  too, 
added  his  own  urgent  advice  that  General 
Lyon  be  reinforced ;  but  to  no  purpose. 
Nor  were  reinforcements  all  that  he  stood 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  81 

in  need  of,  for  at  this  very  time  his  com 
mand  had  but  half  rations  of  bread,  and 
for  the  next  ten  days,  until  the  next  battle, 
in  fact  when  he  was  killed,  and  they  were 
overpowered,  but  half  rations  of  bread  and 
water ! 

So,  at  least,  it  is  charged,  and  apparently 
with  truth.  There  may  be  some  mistake 
in  the  matter  (we  trust  there  is),  but  there 
can  be  no  mistake  in  the  fact  that  General 
Fremont  has  not  done  what  was  expected 
of  him  in  Missouri.  Did  we  expect  too 
much,  remembering  what  General  Lyon 
had  done  ?  Under  his  energetic  manage 
ment  the  State  was  nearly  cleared  of  rebels, 
and  the  Union  cause  was  triumphing.  Now 
—but  we  have  no  heart  to  go  on,  remem 
bering  the  fall  of  Lexington.  We  are  not 
unfriendly  to  General  Fremont  in  this,  but 
we  are  more  friendly  to  our  country,  for 
whom,  as  it  now  seems  to  us,  a  brave  life 
has  been  needlessly  sacrificed.  Fiat  Jus- 
titia,  mat  ccelum. 

A  glimpse  of  General  Lyon,  or  rather  of 


32  MEMOIR  OF 

his  body-guard  at  this  time  may  not  be 
uninteresting.  It  was  composed  of  ten 
athletic  St.  Louis  butchers,  each  mounted 
on  a  powerful  horse  and  armed  with  a 
heavy  cavalry  sword  and  a  pair  of  navy 
revolvers ;  each  wore  a  light  hat  turned  up 
on  the  left  side,  and  decorated  with*  a  white 
ostrich  plume.  Accompanied  by  half  a 
dozen  of  these  savage  looking  fellows,  he 
might  often  be  seen  spurring  along  the 
line  ;  or  they  might  be  seen  in  small  squads, 
or  singly,  galloping  fiercely  to  the  front  or 
the  rear,  or  straight  out  into  the  open  coun 
try.  If  he  went  into  a  house,  a  half  dozen 
of  them  stood  in  front  like  iron  statues  at 
the  bridle  of  their  horses.  If  he  scoured 
along  in  advance  of  the  train,  the  clanking 
of  their  long  sabres  was  heard  beside  him. 
Stop  where  he  would,  there  was  a  stolid 
squad  of  white-plumed  horsemen  awaiting 
patiently  his  movements.  They  were  fear 
less  riders — -jumping  fences  on  a  dead  run, 
leaping  ditches,  galloping  down  steep  de 
scents,  and,  in  fact,  never  riding  less  fast 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  83 

than  their  horses  could  run,  unless  com 
pelled  by  some  urgent  necessity.  Inde 
pendent  of  their  duty  as  body-guards,  they 
acted  as  messengers,  scouts,  &c.  They  were 
commanded  by  a  lieutenant,  and  were  noted 
from  their  appearance  and  daring  horse 
manship. 

On  the  10th  of  August,  three  months 
after  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson,  General 
Lyon  was  no  more.  He  fell  at  the  battle 
of  Wilson's  Creek,  which  is  thus  described 
by  the  Special  Correspondent  of  The  New 
York  Herald: 

"  SPKINGFIELD,  Mo.,  Aug.  10,  1861. 

"  After- the  occurrences  of  the  3d  and  4th 
inst.,  and  the  falling  back  of  the  Union 
troops  upon  Springfield,  the  rebels  made 
an  advance,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  6th 
formed  their  camp  upon  Wilson's  Creek, 
about  ten  miles  from  Springfield,  on  the 
Fayetteville  road.  Reports  of  spies,  de 
serters,  and  a  few  prisoners,  made  it  cer 
tain  that  they  were  in  force  from  eight  to 
twenty  thousand,  and  were  provided  with 


34:  MEMOIR   OF 

from  eight -to  sixteen  pieces  of  brass  can 
non.  On  the  evening  of  the  Yth,  General 
Lyon  formed  a  plan  of  night  surprise,  but 
the  project  was  abandoned,  and  nothing  of 
importance  occurred  until  the  evening  of 
the  9th.  On  that  evening  the  plan  was 
formed  of  attacking  them  simultaneously 
at  either  end  of  the  camp,  which  extended 
for  some  three  miles  along  the  banks  of 
the  creek. 

DISPOSITION    OF    THE    UNION    FORCES. 

"  General  Siegel  was  sent  to  the  extreme 
left,  to  begin  the  attack  on  that  side,  hav 
ing  with  him  a  force  of  twelve  hundred 
men,  and  six  pieces  of  light  artillery  under 
command  of  Major  Schaeffer.  General 
Lyon  led  the  main  column,  which  was  to 
open  battle  on  the  right,  consisting  of  three 
companies  First  infantry,  Captain  Plum- 
mer ;  two  companies  Second  infantry,  Cap 
tain  Steele  ;  one  company  Fourth  artillery, 
recruits,  Lieutenant  Lothrop  ;  Captains 
Totten's  and  Dubois'  batteries,  six  pieces 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  85 

each ;  Missouri  First  regiment,  Colonel 
Andrews ;  Kansas  First,  Colonel  Deitzler  ; 
Kansas  Second,  Colonel  Mitchell ;  Iowa 
First,  Colonel  Bates,  and  one  battalion 
from  Second  Missouri,  under  Major  Oster- 
haus.  In  addition  were  several  companies 
of  Home  Guards,  a  part  of  whom  did  good 
service,  but  the  majority  proved  an  intole 
rable  nuisance,  running  like  frightened  deer 
at  the  least  alarm,  and  getting  in  the  way 
of  others. 

MOVING   TO    THE    ATTACK. 

"  The  whole  force  left  Springfield  about 
sunset  on  the  9th,  the  left  column  taking 
the  Fayetteville  road,  and  the  right  the 
road  leading  to  Mount  Vernon,  leaving 
them  at  proper  points  for  making  detours 
to  enclose  the  rebel  camp.  Your  corres 
pondent  joined  the  right  column,  under 
General  Lyon,  as  that  promised  to  be  most 
actively  engaged.  Midnight  found  us  in  a 
hay  field,  four  miles  from  the  rebel  posi 
tion,  and  as  it  was  not  deemed  prudent  to 


86  MEMOIR   OF 

approach  nearer  before  morning,  the  men 
were  permitted  to  get  what  sleep  they 
could  extract  from  the  hard  ground  during 
the  few  hours  preceding  dawn. 

"  At  a  few  minutes  before  four,  the  whole 
column  was  again  in  motion.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  camp  appeared  in  sight, 
located,  as  we  anticipated,  along  Wilson's 
Creek.  On  either  side  of  the  stream,  the 
valley,  averaging  some  twenty  rods  in 
width,  was  bounded  by  a  range  of  low  and 
gently  sloping  hills,  covered  with  a  scanty, 
but  occasionally  dense  growth  of  scrub 
oaks,  of  a  few  feet  in  height.  Portions  of 
these  slopes,  together  with  parts  of  the 
valley,  had  been  cleared  and  turned  into 
corn  and  wheat  fields ;  the  latter  had  just 
been  visited  by  the  sickle,  but  the  former 
was  still  in  luxuriant  growth,  affording 
complete  concealment  to .  either  foot  or 
horsemen.  The  rebels  had  selected  those 
points  which  admitted  of  the  best  defence 
as  positions  for  their  men  and  batteries, 
these  being  mrinly  on  the  north  side  of  the 


NATHANIEL  LYOK  87 

creek.  The  low  oaks,  with,  which  the 
entire  camp  was  surrounded,  prevented  our 
seeing  many  movements  until  almost  at  the 
last  moment,  and  the  same  cause  did  much 
to  hinder  the  aim  of  both  artillery  and 
riflemen.  At  ten  minutes  past  five  the 
rebel  pickets  were  seen  and  driven  in,  and 
we  rapidly  moved  forward  to  take  position 
opposite  the  rebel  battery.  This  we  se 
cured  on  a  gently  sloping  hill,  which  had 
been  the  extreme  of  the  rebel  camp,  as 
several  wagons,  a  few  tents,  numerous  cook 
ing  utensils,  and  other  et  ceteras  of  a  sol 
dier's  life,  plainly  indicated. 

THE    BATTLE. 

"  At  a  distance  of  eight  hundred  yards 
from  the  rebel  battery,  Captain  Totten  un- 
limbered  his  guns  and  was  speedily  joined 
by  Captain  Dubois.  Captain  Totten 
opened  the  battle  with  a  twelve-pound 
shell,  and  was  promptly  answered  by  the 
rebels.  In  a  few  minutes  all  our  pieces 
were  engaged  with  an  equal  number  of  the 


88  .  MEMOIR  OP 

enemy's  can-non,  both  sides  firing  with  great 
rapidity.  The  First  Missouri  regiment  was 
placed  in  position  to  support  the  battery, 
with  Major  Osterhaus's  battalion  on  the 
extreme  right  to  act  as  skirmishers.  To 
the  left  of  our  line  was  a  ravine,  with  pre 
cipitous  sides  ;  adjoining  this  ravine  was  a 
cornfield,  and  beyond  the  latter  was  a 
wheat  stubblefield.  Captains  Plummer 
and  Gilbert,  with  three  companies  of  regu 
lars,  and  Captain  Wright,  with  two  compa 
nies  of  Home  Guards,  were  sent  to  occupy 
these  fields,  and  prevent  the  enemy  from 
making  a  flank  movement  upon  the  bat 
tery.  The  rebels  did  not  long  allow  our 
forces  to  wait  in  line  with  their  rifles  un 
used,  but  commenced  a  fire  of  musketry 
upon  Osterhaus's  battalion  and  those  of  the 
First  Missouri  on  the  right.  After  two  or 
three  rounds  of  Minie  balls,  the  firing  be 
came  general  along  the  line  of  this  regi 
ment,  and  an  attempt  at  a  charge  was 
broken  up  and  the  enemy  forced  to  retire. 
At  about  the  time  of  the  commencement  of 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  89 

the  firing  by  the  First  Missouri  those  on  our 
left  found  themselves  busily  engaged  in  the 
cornfield  with  a  large  body  of  rebel  troops 
that  had  been  sent  out  to  oppose  them. 
The  Home  Guards,  as  usual,  fell  back  to  a 
safer  locality,  and  the  regulars,  finding  skir 
mishing  in  the  corn  more  destructive  to 
themselves  than  to  their  opponents,  from 
the  latter  knowing  well  the  ground,  fell 
back  to  the  edge  of  the  field  and  succeeded 
in  there  holding  position.  The  fire  against 
the  regulars  before  they  fell  back  was  par 
ticularly  heavy  and  well  directed,  as  the 
corn  afforded  a  fine  screen  behind  which  to 
take  near  and  deliberate  aim.  The  regu 
lars  gave  return  shots  whenever  they  ob 
tained  sight  of  an  enemy,  and  are  confident 
that  they  did  much  towards  thinning  the 
rebel  ranks. 

"  The  First  Missouri  troop,  who  were  act 
ing  as  a  support  to  the  battery  in  front, 
stood  their  ground  like  veterans,  and  sent 
many  a  Minie  ball  true  to  its  aim.  As 
much  of  the  firing  against  them  was  from 


90  MEMOIR   OF 

weapons  inferior  to  theirs,  they  had  the 
enemy  at  a  slight  advantage  when  placed 
man  to  man,  and  though  finally  much  cut 
up  and  forced  to  retire,  they  were  not  with 
drawn  till  they  had  three  successive  times 
repulsed  the  rebels.  On  each  of  these  occa 
sions  the  enemy  brought  fresh  troops  into 
the  field,  and  it  is  believed  that  during  the 
entire  day  they  did  not  bring  the  same 
force  twice  into  action  except  in  one  or  two 
flank  movements.  When  the  Missouri  First 
was  withdrawn,  after  they  had  been  under 
fire  an  hour  and  a  half,  the  Kansas  First  and 
Second,  with  the  Iowa  First,  were  placed  in 
the  front,  the  latter  being  to  the  right  of 
the  Kansas  troops  and  further  towards  the 
rear,  thus  keeping  the  Iowa  partly  in  re 
serve.  The  rebels  again  came  up  in  stronger 
force  than  ever,  but  were  twice  driven  back 
by  the  Kansans — the  latter,  in  both  in 
stances,  bringing  their  bayonets  to  the 
charge  and  pursuing  for  some  distance  down 
the  slope.  They  would  have  followed  up 
to  the  battery  had  not  their  officers  feared 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  91 

that  the  retreat  might  be  a  ruse  to  draw 
them  into  an  ambuscade,  the  scanty  growth 
of  trees  and  bushes  being  admirably  adapted 
for  forming  an  ambush.  All  this  time 
Lieutenant  Lothrop's  regulars  were  lying 
down  to  the  right  of  Dubois's  battery,  wait 
ing  for  a  proper  opportunity  to  come  into 
action.  The  lieutenant  himself  sat  on  his 
horse  in  front  of  his  men,  displaying  the 
most  imperturbable  coolness.  'Don't 
dodge,'  said  he  to  a  reporter,  who  shall  be 
nameless,  as  that  individual  turned  his  head 
aside  to  allow  a  ball  to  pass  ;  c  don't  dodge, 
for  you  might  put  your  head  exactly  where 
a  ball  was  coming,  and  then  we  should  be 
minus  a  reporter.'  About  the  time  the 
Kansas  took  the  place  of  the  First  Missouri, 
Lieutenant  Lothrop's  men  were  ordered  in 
front  of  the  battery  to  clear  the  brush  of 
some  rebel  skirmishers  known  to  be  lying 
there.  As  they  advanced  and  extended 
their  line  to  the  ravine  on  the  left,  a  brisk 
fire  was  opened  upon  them,  both  from  the 
bushes  in  front  and  the  bank  of  the  ravine 


92  MEMOIR   OF 

on  their  left  flank,  but  they  succeeded  in 
dislodging  the  enemy.  It  was  then  disco 
vered  that  the  rebel  skirmishing  in  front 
was  partly  to  draw  attention  from  a  large 
body  of  rebel  infantry  that  was  advancing 
about  six  hundred  yards  from  our  left,  with 
the  evident  intention  of  outflanking  us  and 
falling  on  our  rear.  There  appeared  to  be 
one  full  regiment,  some  six  or  eight  com 
panies,  and  about  fifteen  hundred  men  not 
in  ranks.  Captain  Dubois  brought  his  bat 
tery  to  bear  upon  them,  and  sent  shell, 
grape,  and  canister  directly  in  their  midst, 
causing  a  hasty  and  confused  retreat.  A 
large  body  of  them  made  a  rush  for  an 
opening  in  the  fence,  behind  which  was  a 
clump  of  timber,  and,  as  they  were  crowd 
ing  through,  two  twelve-pounder  spherical 
case-shot  were  exploded  among  them, 
leaving  the  dead  and  wounded  thick  upon 
the  ground.  Our  rear  was  not  for  some 
time  again  menaced  in  that  direction. 

"  Very  soon  after  this  it  was  seen  that  the 
rebel  cavalry,  about  eight  hundred  strong, 


NATHANIEL   LYON.  93 

was  forming  in  the  rear  of  our   right  to 

o  o 

make  a  charge  upon  the  ambulances,  which 
were  being  brought  up  for  the  use  of  the 
wounded.  Captain  Wood's  Kansas  Rangers 
and  two  companies  of  Second  Kansas  In 
fantry,  which  happened  near  the  rear  at 
this  time,  drew  up  to  resist  them.  As  the 
cavalry  came  on  the  infantry  opened  with 
a  volley,  but  did  not  succeed  in  checking 
their  advance.  When  they  were  within 
less  than  two  hundred  yards  of  our  lines, 
Captain  Totten  opened  upon  them  with  two 
rounds  from  his  entire  battery,  which  had 
been  hastily  brought  into  position  unknown 
to  the  rebels.  The  fire  was  diagonally 
across  the  body,  and  each  shot  cut  its  lane 
entirely  through,  leaving  dead  and  wounded 
horses  and  riders  mingled  indiscriminately 
together.  The  charge  was  broken,  and  the 
rebel  cavalry  made  a  disorderly  retreat  to 
the  timber.  Some  twenty  horses  were  gal 
loping  riderless  about  the  field,  and  were 
secured  by  our  men.  The  fight  was  again 
renewed  with  vigor  in  the  front,  and  the 


94  MEMOIR  OF 

lowans  were  brought  into  the  thick  of  the 
contest,  giving  the  Kansans  a  brief  respite. 
They  repelled  an  advance  of  rebel  infantry, 
which  no  sooner  disappeared  than  it  was 
succeeded  by  a  fresh  force  larger  than  the 
previous  one.  The  'Kansas  First  was  again 
brought  forward  and  led  to  the  charge  by 
General  Sweeny,  Colonel  Deitzler  having 
been  wounded  and  taken  to  the  rear. 

DEATH    OF    GENERAL    LYON. 

"  General  Lyon  was  standing  by  his  horse 
near  the  lowans,  and  several  among  the  lat 
ter  asked  for  some  one  to  lead  them.  In 
stantly  General  Lyon  took  command  of  the 
regiment  to  lead  it  forward,  but  before  they 
reached  the  enemy's  lines  he  was  struck  in 
the  breast  by  a  rifle  ball  and  fell  dead  from 
his  horse.  The  rebels,  on  seeing  the  ap 
proach  of  the  Union  troops,  scattered  and 
fled  before  the  latter  got  sufficiently  near 
to  use  the  bayonet.  All  this  transpired  in 
a  very  few  moments,  and  it  was  known  to 
but  few  that  General  Lyon  had  fallen.  The 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  95 

announcement  of  his  death  was  ,not  made 
to  the  soldiers  till  after  the  battle  was 
over. 

"  After  this  but  little  was  done  on  either 
side  for  upwards  of  half  an  hour,  the  rebels 
changing  the  position  of  their  battery  to 
higher  ground  in  the  rear  of  its  former 
location,  and  Captain  Totten  advancing  his 
a  few  rods,  while  Captain  Dubois  remained 
at  his  old  post.  Captain  Granger,  of  the 
regular  service,  detected  a  flank  movement 
in  preparation  against  our  left,  and  took 
three  companies  of  the  Iowa  regiment  to 
the  edge  of  the  ravine  and  caused  them  to 
lie  down  in  the  grass  and  await  the  enemy's 
approach.  Very  soon  the  column  ap 
proached,  Captain  Dubois  pouring  in  grape 
and  canister  when  they  got  quite  near.  As 
soon  as  they  had  come  up  within  short 
range  of  Captain  Granger,  the  lowans, 
taking  sight  without  rising  from  their  posi 
tion,  poured  in  a  most  destructive  fire  of 
Minie  balls  with  terrific  effect.  The  can 
nonade  and  musket  fire  were  too  much 


96  MEMOIR   OP 

for  the  rebels,  and  they  made  the  best 
possible  use  of  their  pedals  back  to  a  place 
of  safety. 

THE    EEBEL    WAGON     TKAIN    ON    FIRE. 

"  Immediately  after  this  retreat  flames 
burst  forth  from  the  rebel  baggage  train, 
which  was  stationed  about  a  mile  down  the 
creek,  and  from  the  extent  of  the  fire  and 
the  vast  columns  of  smoke,  it  is  supposed 
that  the  entire  wagon  train  of  the  rebel 
army  was  destroyed.  How  the  fire  origi 
nated  is  not  known,  but  it  is  supposed  that 
the  rebels,  fearing  a  defeat  and  route,  them 
selves  set  fire  to  the  wragons  rather  than 
have  them  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Union 
ists.  They  were  seen  to  destroy  some 
twenty  wagons  near  their  battery  a  short 
time  after  the  fire  burst  forth  in  the  large 
train,  and  it  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  latter  was  turned  to  ashes  and 
smoke  by  the  owners  themselves.  While 
the  conflagration  was  at  its  height  the  rebels 
made  a  furious  attack  on  the  Union  front 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  97 

and  right  at  the  same  time.  The  battery 
in  front  opened  furiously,  and  several  pieces, 
which  had  been  brought  against  our  right, 
under  cover  of  the  timber,  played  vigor 
ously  from  a  cleared  space  some  eight  hun 
dred  yards  distant.  A  very  large  force  of 
infantry  came  out  in  line  of  battle  order 
from  the  very  place  where  we  had  for  some 
time  expected  Colonel  Siegel  to  appear. 
No  bayonet  charges  were  made  by  either 
side,  but  the  roll  of  musketry  and  the  boom 
of  cannon  were  more  fierce  and  continuous 
than  at  any  previous  time  during  the  day. 
For  half  an  hour  it  was  one  deep,  deafen 
ing  roar,  resounding  through  the  air,  and 
the  field  became  canopied  with  dense  clouds 
of  smoke  ;  the  position  of  cannon  could  only 
be  made  out  by  the  dull,  red  flash  seen 
through  the  fog-like  atmosphere,  and  all 
around  was  falling  a  pitiless  shower  of  lead 
and  iron.  Too  rapid  in  succession  to  think 
of  counting  came  the  smooth  whistle  of  the 
common  rifle  ball,  the  shrill  buzz  of  the 
Minie,  the  dull  hum  of  the  round  ball,  and 
5 


98  WKMOIR  OF 

above  them  all  the  sounds  produced  by  the 
various  descriptions  of  common  munition. 
For  half  an  hour  it  continued,  and  was 
ended  by  the  repulse  of  the  rebels,  who 
returned  no  more  to  the  field.  In  this  last 
scene  of  the  battle  all  the  Union  force  on 
the  field  was  in  action,  and  one-half  our  loss 
of  the  day  occurred  at  this  time. 

OPERATIONS    OF    GENERAL  SIEGEL's  COMMAND. 

"  c  Where  is  Siegel  ?'  had  been  passing 
from  lip  to  lip  for  an  hour  before  this 
attack,  and  he  had  been  anxiously  looked 
for  at  the  very  point  where  the  rebel  infan 
try,  bearing  the  secession  flag,  had  made 
their  appearance.  As  we  had  not  heard 
from  him  since  the  night  previous,  save  by 
the  reports  of  his  cannon,  we  were  uncertain 
as  to  his  fate,  and  fearful  that  we  might 
fire  upon  him  should  he  approach,  as  we 
did  not  know  from  what  quarter  to  expect 
him.  Our  cannon  ammunition  was  nearly 
exhausted,  and  several  companies  of  infan 
try  had  expended  their  last  round  of  car- 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  99 

tridges.  Major  Sturgis  (who  took  command 
after  General  Lyon's  death)  ordered  a 
retreat,  and  the  whole  army  took  up  its 
line  of  march  for  Springfield.  Ambulances 
were  sent  back  with  a  flag  of  truce  to 
gather  up  the  dead  and  wounded.  The 
flag  was  received  by  General  McOullough 
and  Colonel  Mclntosh,  and  by  nine  P.M. 
the  ambulances  returned,  bringing  all  that 
could  be  found.  The  battle  commenced  a 
few  minutes  past  six  A.M.  and  the  retreat 
was  ordered  at  eleven.  With  but  a  few 
intervals  the  batteries  on  both  sides  were 
in  constant  action  throughout  the  whole, 
and  there  were  few  minutes  when  the  roll 
of  musketry  could  not  be  heard. 

"  To  understand  Colonel  Siegel's  position 
it  will  be  necessary  to  explain  more  fully 
the  situation  of  the  rebel  camp.  Wilson's 
Creek  has  a  general  southerly  direction ; 
but  at  a  farm  called  McNary's  it  makes  a 
sharp  bend  to  the  east,  follows  an  easterly 
course  for  two  and  a  half  miles,  and  then 
bends  suddenly  to  the  south.  The  Fayette- 


100  MEMOIR   OF 

ville  road  crosses  the  creek  about  a  mile 
and  three  fourths  below  the  upper  bend. 
The  rebel  camp  extended  three  miles 
along  the  creek — two  and  a  half  in  an 
easterly  direction,  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
above  the  upper  bends  towards  the  north, 
and  the  same  distance  below  the  lower 
bend  towards  the  south.  General  Lyon's 
attack  was  made  on  the  western  side,  just 
above  the  upper  bend.  Colonel  Siegel 
marched  from  Springfield  clown  (going 
south)  the  Fayetteville  road,  left  that  road 
four  miles  this  side  of  Wilson's  Creek,  and 
turned  to  his  left,  went  around  the  rebel 
camp,  came  into  the  same  road  two  miles 
beyond  Wilson's  Creek,  and  marched  up  the 
Fayetteville  road  towards  the  enemy's 
camp.  Some  who  saw  his  command  com 
ing,  about  daylight,  from  the  direction  of 
Arkansas,  walked  out  to  meet  him,  not 
dreaming  of  the  approach  of  the  Union 
forces  on  that  side.  These  he  allowed  to 
get  within  his  lines,  and  made  prisoners  of 
them  before  they  discovered  their  mistake. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  101 

He  fell  upon  tlieir  camp  at  the  road,  routed 
them  arid  took  possession,  planting  his 
cannon  in  the  camp  and  playing  upon  them 
from  that  position.  He  found  and  took 
possession  of  the  private  papers  of  General 
McCullough,  and  one  of  his  lieutenants  was 
fortunate  enough  to  secure  a  bag  of  gold. 
Colonel  Siegel  was  so  severely  pressed  that 
he  had  to  abandon  the  camp  and  take 
position  on  a  hill,  where  he  served  his 
artillery  with  great  effect,  and  brought  his 
infantry  into  active  use.  A  concentrated 
fire  was  made  upon  his  battery,  killing 
many  of  his  artillerymen  and  nearly  all  his 
horses.  A  dash  of  infantry  and  cavalry 
was  then  made,  and  five  of  his  six  cannon 
fell  into  possession  of  the  rebels.  The 
infantry  and  cavalry  came  so  hard  upon  him 
as  to  compel  him  to  retreat,  which  he  did, 
bringing  away  nearly  two  hundred  prisoners. 
His  command  was  badly  cut  up  and  he 
found  it  impossible  to  make  a  junction  with 
the  main  column.  The  last  assault  upon 
the  main  column  was  made  just  after  the 


102  MEMOIR   OP 

retreat  of"  Colonel  Siegel,  and  the  cannon 
which  played  upon  us  on  the  right  were 
the  five  that  were  captured.  At  one  time, 
had  a  vigorous  movement  been  made  on 
our  part,  the  rebel  battery  might  have 
been  taken. 

"  For  two  or  three  days  before  the  battle 
General  Lyon  changed  much  in  appearance. 
Since  it  became  apparent  to  him  that  he 
must  abandon  the  Southwest  or  have  his 
army  cut  to  pieces,  he  had  lost  much  of  his 
former  energy  and  decision.  To  one  of 
his  staff  he  remarked,  the  evening  before 
the  battle,  i  I  am  a  man  believing  in  pre 
sentiments,  and  ever  since  this  night  sur 
prise  was  planned  I  have  had  a  feeling  I 
cannot  get  rid  of  that  it  would  result 
disastrously.  Through  the  refusal  of 
government  properly  to  reinforce  me  I  arn 
obliged  to  abandon  the  country.  If  I 
leave  it  without  engaging  the  enemy  the 
public  will  call  me  a  coward.  If  I  engage 
him  I  may  be  defeated  and  my  command 
cut  to  pieces.  I  am  too  weak  to  hold 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  1Q3 

Springfield,  and  yet  the  people  will  de 
mand  that  I  bring  about  a  battle  with  the 
very  enemy  I  cannot  keep  a  town  against. 
How  can  this  result  otherwise  than  against 
us?' 

"  On  the  way  to  the  field  I  frequently 
rode  near  him.  He  seemed  like  one  be 
wildered,  and  often  when  addressed  failed 
to  give  any  recognition,  and  seemed  totally 
unaware  that  he  was  spoken  to.  On  the 
battlefield  he  gave  his  orders  promptly, 
and  seemed  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of 
his  men,  but  utterly  regardless  of  his  own 
safety.  While  he  was  standing  where 
bullets  flew  thickest,  just  after  his  favorite 
horse  was  shot  from  under  him,  some  of 
his  officers  interposed  and  begged  that  he 
would  retire  from  the  spot  and  seek  one 
less  exposed.  Scarcely  raising  his  eyes 
from  the  enemy  he  said — 

" '  It  is  well  enough  that  I  stand  here.  I 
am  satisfied.' 

"While  the  line  was  forming  for  the 
charge  against  the  rebels  in  which  he  lost 


104  MEMOIR   OF 

his  life,  General  Lyon  turned  to  Major  Stur 
gis,  who  stood  near  him,  and  remarked — 

"  c  I  fear  that  the  day  is  lost ;  if  Colonel 
Siegel  had  been  successful  he  would  have 
joined  us  before  this.  I  think  I  will  lead 
this  charge.' 

"  He  had  been  wounded  in  the  leg  in  an 
early  part  of  the  engagement — a  flesh 
wound  merely — from  which  the  blood 
flowed  profusely.  Major  Sturgis  during 
the  conversation  noticed  blood  on  General 
Lyon's  hat,  and  at  first  supposed  he  had 
been  touching  it  with  his  hand,  which  was 

O  7 

wet  with  blood  from  his  leg.  A  moment 
after,  perceiving  that  it  was  fresh,  he 
removed  the  General's  hat  and  asked  the 
cause  of  its  appearance.  '  It  is  nothing, 
Major,  nothing  but  a  wound  in  the  head,' 
said  General  Lyon,  turning  away  and 
mounting  his  horse.  Without  taking  the 
hat  held  out  to  him  by  Major  Sturgis,  he 
addressed  the  lowans  he  was  to  command 
with — 

" i  Forward,  men  !     I  will  lead  you  /' 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  105 

"  Two  minutes  afterwards  he  lay  dead  on 
the  field,  killed  by  a  rifle  ball  through  his 
breast,  just  above  the  heart.  In  death  his 
features  wore  the  same  troubled  and  puz 
zled  expression  that  had  been  fixed  upon 
them  for  the  past  week.  His  body  was 
brought  to  town  in  the  afternoon,  and  will 
be  forwarded  to  his  friends  in  Connecticut 
for  interment. 

"  The  appearance  of  the  field  throughout 
the  day  was  exceedingly  gloomy.  The 
morning  was  cloudy,  and  once  in  the  aften- 
noon  rain  fell.  Towards  noon  the  sun 
shone  out,  but  not  clearly.  The  smoke  from 
the  cannon  and  small  arms,  with  that  from 
the  burning  train,  hung  over  the  field,  seem 
ing  like  a  pall  spread  to  cover  the  unfor 
tunate  dead.  The  horrors  of  Manassas 
were  renewed  on  this  battlefield.  Our 
wounded  men  were  bayoneted  or  struck 
over  the  head  with  musket  butts.  An 
officer,  a  lieutenant  in  the  First  Missouri, 
was  taken  prisoner,  struck  four  times  with 
a  musket,  and  left  for  dead.  He  revived  and 


106  MEMOIR  OF 

escaped.  A  surgeon,  who  went  on  the  field 
after  the  battle,  was  several  times  shot  at 
and  forced  to  retire.  Later  in  the  afternoon 
a  flag  of  truce  was  sent  to  the  rebel  com 
manders,  and  was  received. 

"  Union  flags  were  several  times  waved  to 
induce  our  men  to  go  forward.  None  were 
taken  by  this  ruse. 

u  At  the  time  the  enemy  were  advancing 
to  outflank  our  left,  and  were  repulsed  by 
our  cannonading,  a  rebel  flag  was  borne 
prominently  in  their  front.  The  man  carry 
ing  it  was  struck  by  a  shell,  which  exploded 
at  the  same  moment.  Another  snatched 
up  the  banner,  and  was  hurrying  forward 
when  he  was  killed  by  a  canister  shot. 
The  flag  was  not  again  seen. 

"  Most  of  the  shot  from  the  rebel  cannon 
passed  over  our  heads.  A  few  horses  were 
killed  by  round  shot,  and  two  or  three  men 
were  badly  wounded  with  pieces  of  shell. 
With  these  exceptions  I  do  not  know  of 
their  artillery  doing  damage.  Your  cor 
respondent  was  standing  beside  his  horse 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  107 

under  a  tree  in  the  rear  of  Capt.  Totten's 
battery,  when  a  six-pound  shot  passed 
through  the  tree  top  not  four  feet  above 
his  head.  Thinking  there  might  be  a 
better  place  for  observation,  I  changed  my 
position  some  twenty  rods,  and  I  was 
speedily  admonished  of  my  insecurity  by 
another  ball  ploughing  up  the  ground  not 
six  feet  away,  and  literally  covering  me 
with  dirt.  Upon  the  theory  that  'light 
ning  does  not  strike  twice  in  the  same 
place,'  I  kept  still,  and  was  not  troubled 
by  any  more  of  the  same  sort  so  near  me. 
A  six-pound  shot  produces  a  sound  any 
thing  but  melodious.  About  the  time  the 
action  commenced  I  rode  past  the  First 
Missouri  regiment.  One  of  the  soldiers, 
seeing  my  citizen's  dress,  cocked  his  gun 
and  brought  it  to  bear  upon  me.  I  ven 
tured  to  ask — 

" '  What  are  you  going  to  shoot  me  for  ¥ 
"  '  I  don't  know  you,'  was  the  reply,  with 
the  gun  still  in  position. 

"  Just  then  one  of  the    soldiers   asked 


where  I  had  been  since  I  was  with  them 
at  BooneviEe,  and  my  about-to-shoot  friend 
lowered  his  rifle  and  disappeared. 

-  Whether  the  result  is  a  victory,  a  defeat, 
or  a  drawn  battle,  I  leave  for  tie  reader 
to  decide.  Our  forces  took  a  position  and 
held  it  five  hours.  When  they  retired 
:lr  enemy  had  been  several  times  repulsed, 
in  the  ~.ist  attack  driven  from  the 
field.  They  had  burned  their  baggage 
train  to  prevent  our  getting  it,  and  when 
we  left  the  field  did  not  attempt  to  pursue 
us.  Upwards  of  an  hour  after  our  depar 
ture  they  returned  and  took  possession, 
rendering  it  necessary  that  our  ambulances 
should  go  out  under  a  flag  of  truce.  The 
rebel  troops  outnumbered  the  Unionists  at 
least  four  to  one,  and  some  of  our  officers 
estimate  their  strength  as  fullv  six  times 

*—  » 

that  of  ours."" 


POLITICAL  WRITINGS. 


OUR  CAUSE — OUR  CANDIDATE. 

OUR  cause  is  to  honor  labor  and  elevate  the 
laborer  ;  our  candidate,  Abe  Lincoln. 

Our  cause  we  know  to  be  the  noblest  of  human 
aspirations ;  our  candidate  we  believe  fit,  both  in 
motive  and  capacity,  for  the  attainment  of  this 
cause. 

Labor  is  the  only  source  of  wealth,  and  through 
the  application  of  its  productive  means  is  power 
alone  obtained ;  and  to  control  these  means,  the 
product  of  labor,  to  the  attainment  of  power,  do 
princes  exhaust  their  policies  of  state,  priests 
their  subtleties  of  theology,  and  demagogues  and 
designing  men  every  artifice  of  hypocrisy  and 
imposition — all  having  in  view  the  easy  eleva 
tion,  through  craft,  to  power  and  luxurious  ease, 
of  the  no n -laboring  classes.  And  melancholy  is 
indeed  the  fact  that  the  laboring  classes  have 
often  lent  themselves  to  these  arts  of  designing 


112  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

men,  and  contributed  to  their  own  degradation. 
And  it  is  the  greatest  political  revolution  yet  to 
be  effected,  to  bring  the  laboring  man  to  know 
that  honest  industry  is  the  highest  of  merit,  and 
should  be  awarded  the  highest  honor,  and  pro 
perly  pursued  contributes  to  his  intelligence  and 
morality,  and  to  the  virtues  needed  for  official 
station. 

Without  analysing  the  relation  between  labor 
and  its  productive  means,  it  will  be  readily  seen, 
that  where  no  tyrannical  measures  are  adopted  to 
furnish  a  favored  class  with  means,  at  the  expense 
of  the  laborers,  all,  or  nearly  all,  must  labor  for  a 
living,  and  where  labor  is  duly  honored,  and  this 
great  laboring  class  elevated,  not  only  is  great 
happiness  gained  to  the  community,  but  cor 
responding  wealth  ;  for,  industry  being  a  merit, 
it  will  be  pursued  with  laudable  zeal,  to  the  pro 
duction  of  means,  or  wealth. 

On  the  other  hand,  where  labor  is  despised, 
and  the  laborer  degraded  and  held  to  believe  his 
position  inevitably  connected  with  meanness  and 
misery,  not  only  is  the  laboring  class,  which  must 
still  be  a  great  majority  in  the  community,  made 
unhappy,  but  labor  being  degrading,  all,  who 
can,  will  avoid  labor  as  a  means  of  living,  and 
thus'  reduce  productiveness  or  wealth,  both 
through  the  want  of  zeal  in  the  laborer,  and  the 


OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE.  H3 

withdrawal  of  many  from  occupations  of  labor, 
who  will  resort  to  artifices  and  clandestine  means 
of  living  rather  than  laboring ;  such  is  unfortu 
nately  too  much  our  present  condition.  A  further 
point  to  be  noticed,  is  the  vice  engendered,  both 
by  the  degradation  of  the  laborers,  and  the  idle 
ness  and  craft  of  the  non-laborers.  To  the  reader 
who  has  followed  us  thus  far  we  would  make  an 
application  of  these  views  upon  the  question  of 
slavery  in  the  territories. 

In  countries  where  slavery  exists,  labor  devolves 
there  for  the  most  part  upon  the  slaves,  and  is 
therefore  identified  with  slavery  ;  and  the  white 
free  laborer  being  valued  by  slaveowners,  who 
control  public  opinion,  only  as  so  much  physical 
organism  (bone,  muscle,  &c.)  for  producing  means, 
he  is  degraded  to  the  condition  of  the  slave,  so 
far  as  his  influence  and  moral  status  go,  and  is 
even  lower  in  physical  comforts,  for  the  want  of 
the  intelligent  care  the  slaveowner  bestows  upon 
the  slave,  and  of  which  he,  the  free  laborer,  has 
become  incompetent  by  a  mental  depravity  cor 
responding  to  his  moral  degradation.  This  is  a 
truth  of  philosophy  and  political  economy,  that 
man  rises  to  a  position  corresponding  to  the  rights 
and  responsibilities  devolved  upon  him,  and 
therefore  the  only  true  way  to  make  a  man  is  to 
invest  him  with  the  rights,  duties,  and  responsi- 


114  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

bilities  of  a  man,  and  he  generally  rises  in  intel 
lectual  and  moral  greatness  to  a  position  corres 
ponding  to  these  circumstances ;  and  it  is  the  very 
want  of  them  that  makes  the  free  non-si  avehold- 
ing  persons  of  the  slave  states  so  degraded  and 
imbecile  that  the  slaves  themselves  feel  a  conscious 
superiority,  in  which  they  are  encouraged  by 
their  owners,  to  the  extent  of  thinking  it  better 
to  be  a  nigger  than  a  poor  white  man  ;  and  this 
is  done  to  pacify  the  slave,  and  thus  secure  this 
artificial  system  of  securing  the  products  of 
labor  to  the  non-laboring  classes,  and  also,  by 
degrading  white  laborers,  prevent  their  industry 
from  competing  with  slave  labor  to  reduce  there 
by  the  value  of  slaves. 

So  true  are  these  things,  that  it  is  well  known 
that  the  poor  whites  of  the  slave  states  are  the 
most  subservient  tools  of  the  slaveowners,  and 
that  of  all  the  artificial  systems  devised  by  tyran 
ny  to  impose  upon  the  poor  man,  none  have  any 
where  reduced  him  to  such  squalid  poverty  and 
utterly  degraded  demoralization  as  prevail  among 
the  free  laborers  of  the  slave  states.  Such  is  the 
state  of  things  which,  with  the  Dred  Scott  deci 
sion  and  the  policy  of  the  Democracy,  scourged 
on  by  the  lash  of  its  southern  masters,  we  are  to 
have  not  only  in  Kansas,  but  all  our  territories. 
For  this  purpose  is  a  slave  code  to  be  imposed 


OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE.  H5 

against  the  will  of  our  people,  Kansas  to  be  kept 
in  territorial  bondage,  the  Homestead  Bill  to  be 
defeated,  and  the  whole  power  and  patronage  of 
the  government  prostituted  to  the  purpose  of 
opposing  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  physical 
development  of  the  industrial  classes,  whose 
energetic  resources  have  in  hand  at  once  the  wel 
fare  both  of  themselves  and  our  country,  and  the 
uprooting  of  slavery  in  the  territories. 

To  this  cause  we  are  unalterably  committed; 
such  is  our  platform  and  the  purpose  of  our  can 
didate.  Upon  our  candidate  we  must  omit  in 
this  article,  on  account  of  its  length,  the  points 
which  controlled  his  nomination  and  render  him 
the  fit  exponent  of  our  principles,  in  view  of 
which,  and  the  ready  acquiescence  of  all  the  great 
competitors  (some  of  whom  must  have,  in  any 
event,  been  disappointed),  we  have  no  hesitation 
upon  our  course  of  duty. 

Our  principles,  as  above  given,  make  Abe 
Lincoln  a  more  suitable  candidate,  perhaps,  than 
could  have  been  well  otherwise  selected,  as  his 
present  greatness  and  position  are  due  to  the 
operation  of  the  great  principles  we  now  advo 
cate  for  our  Territories — that  of  honoring  labor 
and  elevating  the  honest  laborer,  of  whom  we 
intend,  in  this  case,  to  make  our  next  President. 

June  9,  I860. 


II. 

OUE  CAUSE — OUK  CANDIDATE. 

IN  our  former  article  under  this  head,  we 
showed  our  cause  to  be  more  distinctly  that  of 
elevating  the  free  laborer,  by  keeping  him  from 
contact  with  the  system  of  slave  labor,  by  which 
he  is  reduced,  in  moral  status,  to  a  level  with,  or 
lower  than  that  of  the  slave.  That  honest  indus 
try  is  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  high  intellectual 
culture  and  moral  elevation,  is  shown  by  the  con 
dition  of  the  generality  of  our  laborers  in  the 
free  states,  and  such  examples  as  Benjamin 
Franklin,  1ST.  P.  Banks,  and  our  distinguished 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  Abraham  Lincoln. 
That  this  is  the  reverse  in  the  slave  states,  we 
proved,  not  only  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  but 
the  existing  condition  of  the  free  laborer  there, 
where  he  is  so  much  demoralized  as  to  be  inoffen 
sive  to  the  oligarchists  of  the  slave  interest,  who 
control  the  political  machinery  of  their  respective 


OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE.  H7 

states,  so  as  to  make  all  tilings  harmonize  with, 
or  subservient  to  this  interest.  And  by  a  shrewd 
foresight  and  combination,  in  conjunction  with 
unscrupulous  leaders  north,  they  are  attempting, 
through  the  machinery  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  to  extend  this  system  over  our  free  terri 
tories. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  consider,  further  than 
is  incidental  to  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  ter 
ritories,  the  effects  of  slavery  upon  the  owners  of 
slaves,  their  social  and  political  economy  ;  as  by 
our  platform,  founded  upon  the  fact  of  the  exist 
ence  of  slavery  in  the  southern  states  at  the 
period  of  our  political  compacts,  we  bind  our 
selves  to  adhere  to  all  moral  obligations  involved 
therein,  and  refrain  from  any  hostilities  towards 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  those  states.  This  we 
shall  do ;  but  as  incident  to  the  question  of  sla 
very  in  the  territories,  we  have  illustrated  its 
degrading  effects  upon  the  free  laborer,  and  now 
further  warn  our  brethren  against  contributing  to 
build  up,  in  our  midst,  an  oligarchy  of  proud,  domi 
neering  slaveowners,  so  lamented  and  graphically 
described  by  Jefferson,  and  whose  position  and 
interests  place  them  in  antagonism  to  the  free 
laborer,  whom  they  despise  and  denounce  as  they 
did  in  the  last  presidential  election  through  the 


118  OUR  CAUSE— OUfl  CANDIDATE. 

southern  press-,  as  "  greasy  mechanics,"  "  filthy 
operatives,"  &c.     "We  quote: 

"  Free  society  is  a  monstrous  abortion,  and 
slavery  the  healthy,  beautiful,  and  natural  being, 
which  they  are  trying,  unconsciously,  to  adopt. 
The  slaves  are  governed  far  better  than  the  free 
laborers  at  the  north  are  governed.  Our  negroes 
are  not  only  better  off  as  to  physical  comforts 
than  are  those  free  laborers,  but  their  moral  con 
dition  is  better." 

Such  may  be  indeed  the  condition  of  the  free 
laborers  at  the  south,  and  these  views  of  the 
Richmond  Enquirer  are  founded  upon  this  con 
dition,  and  they  establish  by  southern  authority 
the  points  we  have  advanced — the  arrogance,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  the  slaveowner,  and  the  degra 
dation  on  the  other,  of  the  free  laborer.  Again  :— 
"  Free  society  1  we  sicken  at  the  name  !  What 
is  it  but  a  conglomeration  of  greasy  mechanics, 
filthy  operatives,  small-fisted  farmers,  and  moon 
struck  theorists  ?  All  the  northern,  and  espe 
cially  the  New  England  States,  are  devoid  of 
society  fitted  for  a  well-bred  gentleman.  The 
prevailing  class  one  meets  with  is  that  of  mecha 
nics  struggling  to  be  genteel,  and  small  farmers 
who  do  their  own  drudgery,  and  yet  they  are 
hardly  fit  for  a  gentleman's  body  servant.  This 


OUR  CAUSE -OUR^CASDI]} ATE.  H9 

is  your  free  society,  which  your  northern  hordes 
are  endeavoring  to  extend  into  Kansas." 

Yes,  and  if  we  can  attain  the  standard  of  New 
England,  here  cited  for  condemnation  by  the  Mus- 
cogee  Herald  (Ala.),  we  shall  be  satisfied.  How 
far  we  are  to  stultify  our  own  interests,  integrity, 
and  common-sense,  by  sustaining  the  Democracy, 
and  thereby  contributing,  through  the  general 
government,  to  make  ourselves  subject  to,  and 
sustain  this  garrulous  abuse  of  us,  we  are  glad  of 
the  opportunity  soon  to  show. 

"  A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that, 
The  honest  man,  tho'  e'er  sae  poor, 
Is  king  o'  men  for  a'  that. 
Then  let  us  pray  that  come  it  may, 
And  come  it  will  for  a'  that, 
That  sense  and  worth,  o'er  a'  the  earth, 
May  bear  the  gree  and  a'  that. 
That  man  to  man  the  world  o'er, 
Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that." 

BURNS'S  Honest  Poverty. 

Our  worthy  candidate  is  an  illustration  of  these 
lofty  sentiments  of  the  immortal  poet,  and  this  we 
trust  will  be  more  fully  shown,  to  the  confusion 
of  our  arch-enemy,  in  his  presidential  capacity. 

A  word  now  upon  this  part  of  our  heading — 
Our  Candidate.  Mr.  Seward  was  the  strongest 
man  before  the  Chicago  convention,  and  had  pro- 


120  OUI^  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

bably  friends  -  enough,  in  it  who  preferred  him,  to 
have  given  him  the  nomination,  but  of  whom, 
many  having  the  cause  of  Kepublicanism  more  at 
heart  than  the  elevation  of  their  favorite,  feared 
his  availability,  on  account  of  his  supposed  affec 
tion  for  and  affiliation  with  northern  abolitionists, 
as  have  been  charged,  for  a  long  time  past,  by  his 
opponents,  on  account  of  his  past  political  views 
and  acts,  and  more  especially  his  late  "  irrepressi 
ble  conflict"  doctrine.  And  though  ill-founded, 
these  charges  were  liable  to  hurt  Mr.  Seward  with 
many  of  our  conservative  and  life-long  democra 
tic  Eepublicans,  with  whom  Mr.  Seward  is  not  a 
favorite.  Mr.  Seward  also  hurt  himself  with  his 
Kepublican  friends,  we  think,  in  supporting  the 
President's  policy  of  a  military  regimen  over 
Kansas,  as  he  did,  by  voting  to  raise  new  troops 
for  the  Utah  service  (against  the  Mormons),  and 
thereby  enable  the  army,  then  in  Kansas,  to 
remain  there. 

Let  us  not  be  understood  as  disparaging  Mr. 
Seward,  nor  withholding  gratitude  for  his  eminent 
services,  but,  as  is  well  said  by  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  what  Mr.  Seward  is  and  has  been 
he  attained  through  the  approbation  of  the 
people,  and  it  becomes  him  and  his  friends 
to  accept,  and  be  satisfied  with  such  appro- 


OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE.  121 

bation  as  the  people  see  fit  to  manifest,  and  is 
valuable  only  as  it  is  bestowed  unsolicited,  with 
out  management  or  force.  Mr.  Seward  readily 
acquiesces,  as  we  know,  and  cordially  we  believe 
— his  friends,  no  doubt,  will  also. 

To  our  four  friends  from  Ohio,  McLean,  Chase, 
Wade  and  Cor  win,  whom  we  name  in  the  order 
of  our  preferences,  we  have  less  objections  on  the 
score  of  qualifications  and  availability,  than  the 
fact,  that  being  all  from  the  same  State,  where 
each  has  deservedly  warm  friends,  heartburnings 
and  jealousies  might  arise  at  the  triumph  of  one 
over  the  other  rivals,  whereby  a  coolness  towards 
the  one  selected,  might  endanger  success  in  a 
State  we  cannot  well  spare. 

Mr.  Bates  was  popular,  but  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  he  is  a  late  acquisition  to  our  ranks, 
and  though  one  of  which  we  are  proud,  he  has 
not  struggled  with  us  in  our  days  of  darkness  and 
trial,  but  on  the  contrary,  in  the  last  Presidential 
election,  when  the  wail  of  our  sufferings  touched 
every  sympathetic  heart,  Mr.  Bates  joined  the 
diversion  made  by  Mr.  Fillmore  in  favor  of  the 
Democrats,  which  caused  our  defeat.  His  nomi 
nation,  we  have  reason  to  fear,  would  have  hurt 
us  with  our  naturalized  citizens,  who,  if  true  to 
themselves,  in  the  advocacy  of  their  own  eleva- 
6 


122  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE, 

tion,  will  prove  an  important  element  and  efficient 
aid  towards  the  attainment  of  our  cause. 

Mr.  Banks  is  a  man  of  ability  and  pure  patriot 
ism,  and  had  our  confidence,  but  we  make  no 
lamentations  over  a  result,  in  which  almost  every 
one  having  a  favorite  candidate  must  be  disap 
pointed.  But  we  are  gratified  to  see,  that  the 
friends  of  the  eminent  men  above  named,  and  of 
others  like  Clay,  Blair,  Foote,  Collamer,  &c.,  under 
the  examples  of  their  respective  favorites,  are  all 
united  to  support  the  nominee  of  the  Chicago  con 
vention.  This  nominee,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 
now  stands  before  the  country  as  our  standard- 
bearer,  than  whom  none  could  have  been  more 
happily  chosen,  as  the  embodiment  of  our  great 
cause  of  the  laboring  man.  His  stalwart  frame, 
honest  heart,  and  comprehensive,  well-trained 
mind,  confound  the  sneering  taunts  of  the  slave 
oligarchy  at  free  labor,  and  point  to  us,  with 
unerring  certainty,  the  pathway  of  duty,  which 
shall  lead  to  our  highest  humanity,  from  which 
we  shall  gaze  with  a  mournful  smile,  at  the  impo 
tent  jeers  of  the  proud  and  vain,  who  follow  their 
blind  infatuation  to  a  shameful  end. 

Jwne  16,  I860. 


HI. 

OUR  CAUSE — OUR  CANDIDATE. 

IN  our  last  article  under  this  head,  we  gave 
reasons  why  many  of  the  leading  competitors  were 
not  nominated  at  the  Chicago  Convention,  and  it 
follows  by  consequence  that  the  nomination  must 
fall  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  if  others  could  not  get  it. 
But  this  would  leave  our  nominee  in  the  negative 
position  of  owing  success  to  being  unobjection 
able,  rather  than  commanding  support  from  com 
mendable  attributes  and  character.  But  it  was 
well  known  to  all  in  Chicago  at  the  time,  and  the 
history  of  the  Convention  shows  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  among  the  foremost  at  the  start,  and  it  was 
due  to  the  hold  his  commendable  qualities  had 
upon  his  friends  in  Convention,  that  they,  joined  by 
the  overwhelming  outside  pressure  in  the  city  and 
State,  were  enabled  to  secure  the  success  of  their 
favorite  candidate.  "  Give  us,  Lincoln,"  said  Illi 
nois,  "  and  you  shall  have  our  vote — we  gave  it  to 


124  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

him  as  a  state  for  the  United  States  Senate  against 
Douglas — our  popular  majority  for  him  in  that 
canvass  is  the  foundation  of  this  confidence." 
This  is  enough  to  show  how  Mr.  Lincoln  stands 
where  he  is  best  known.  He  had,  however,  his 
share  of  public  life  in  the  Legislature  of  his  own 
State,  and  as  member  of  Congress,  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say,  that  he  always  justified  the  sup 
port  awarded  him,  by  executing  the  trusts  com 
mitted  to  his  charge.  It  is  this  fidelity  to  his  own 
principles,  and  the  interests  with  which  he  has 
been  entrusted,  more  than  anything  else  that  has 
controlled  this  nomination — a  nomination  made 
more  appropriate  by  the  sad  disappointment  of 
the  country  at  the  falseness  of  the  Democracy  to 
every  profession  and  political  creed. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  give  a  biography 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  showing  the  steps  by  which  he 
rose,  through  industry  and  integrity,  as  so  many 
of  our  countrymen  have  done,  to  successive  posi 
tions  of  trust  and  honor;  but  that  he  has  so  risen^ 
against  every  disadvantage  in  youth,  to  his  pre 
sent  position,  which  commands  the  confidence,  and 
constitutes  the  hope  of  the  great  Republican  party, 
is  the  main  feature  in  his  qualifications  for  our 
candidate,  at  this  period  when  the  sole  tangible 
issue  between  us  and  the  Democracy  is,  this  very 


OUR  CAUSE— OUK  CANDIDATE.  125 

question  of  elevating  the  honest  and  poor  laborer 
through  industry — whether  that  industry,  which 
is  the  parent  of  virtue  and  means  of  all  material 
happiness,  shall  be  held  in  respect,  as  we  urge, 
to  the  elevation  and  happiness  of  the  vast  labor 
ing  classes  and  the  great  increase  of  wealth  in  the 
country,  as  is  mainly  the  case  in  our  free  States, 
though  not  to  the  extent  we  desire ;  or  whether, 
as  urged  by  the  Democracy,  labor,  being  made  to 
rest  upon  a  basis  of  slavery,  industry  or  all 
engaged  in  it  must  be  held  in  degradation  and 
despised  by  a  self-constituted  oligarchy,  invested 
with  the  possession  and  control  of  labor. 

That  this  is  the  impending  issue  we  have  shown 
in  our  previous  articles  on  this  subject,  and  it  is 
lamentable,  that  the  morbid  desire  of  man  to 
overreach  the  laborer,  and  make  his  productive 
ness  subservient  to  his  convenience,  has,  through 
artful  devices,  so  imposed  upon  the  laborer  as  to 
secure  his  own  co-operation  to  this  end.  Such  we 
think  has,  in  times  gone  by,  been  more  or  less  the 
case  in  the  artful  schemes  of  party  to  build  up  a 
privileged  class,  founded  on  property  in  banks, 
manufactories,  &c.,  while  it  was  more  obviously 
so,  in  the  support  given,  at  the  last  Presidential 
election,  to  the  so-called  Democracy,  which  had  in 
view,  and  it  is  now  so  seen,  the  building  up  of  an 
aristocracy  founded  on  property  in  "  niggers." 


126  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

Thus  was  the  Honorable  Jefferson  Davis  right 
in  saying  in  the  Senate  the  other  day,  that  the 
Democratic  party  had  taken  the  place  of  the  old 
Whig  party,  for  so  it  has,  in  the  feature  formerly 
attributed  to  the  Whig  party,  of  desiring  to  build 
up  a  select  class  of  privileged  persons,  to  obtain 
their  means,  through  special  legislation,  at  the 
expense  of  the  industrial  classes. 

This  morbid  desire  for  wealth  and  power,  this 
bane  of  the  human  heart,  rises,  hydra-like,  in  every 
place  and  shape  to  tempt  the  weak  and  blind,  and 
mislead  the  strong,  and  unfortunately  has,  at  dif 
ferent  times,  lured  Man  with  its  syren  songs 
to  the  fatal  embrace  of  tyranny,  in  which  the  his 
tory  of  the  world  has  so  generally  found  him. 
Against  this  we  now  war,  and  with  the  more 
earnestness,  as  with  the  artfulness  of  a  deity,  and 
the  presumption  of  a  fiend,  our  own  Constitution 
is  perversely  claimed,  by  the  Democracj^,  as  the 
aegis  for  the  establishment  of  this  slave  autocracy 
over  our  country.  We  thus  again  advert  to  this 
struggle  so  artfully  though  vainly  pursued, 
between  aristocracy,  or  capital,  and  labor,  in  order 
to  show  more  fully  the  fitness  of  our  candidate, 
as  a  laboring  man,  and  one  who  has  risen  by 
industry  from  obscurity  and  indigence  to  carry 
on  the  great  work  which,  through  so  many  hard- 


OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE.      127 

fought  battles,  has  so  satisfactorily  progressed  in 
this  country,  towards  placing  the  honest  laborer 
on  that  just  eminence,  which  the  wants  of  society 
and  the  laws  of  nature  demand,  and  so  imperi 
ously  demand,  that  any  artificial  system  which 
blinks  or  ignores  them,  must  be  ever  subject  to 
unhappy  changes  and  revolutions ;  and  it  may  be 
safely  asserted,  that  this  is  at  the  foundation  of  all 
disturbances  in  society.  We  commend  our  friends 
to  the  history  of  our  candidate  to  learn  his  fitness 
upon  our  great  national  issues. 

Nor  must  we  omit  a  reference  to  our  candidate 
for  the  Yice-Presidency,  whose  well-known 
modesty  and  integrity,  combined  with  his  high 
moral  courage  and  eminence  as  a  statesman,  make 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine,  fit  for  any  position, 
and  the  most  honorable  acquisition  to  our  ticket. 
As  Senator  he  could  not  violate  his  conscience  to 
vote,  under  instructions,  for  the  repeal  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  and  thereupon  resigned  his 
seat  and  returned  home,  to  co-operate  in  establish 
ing  the  principles  of  Eepublicanism  in  his  State, 
upon  which  he  became  Governor,  and  soon 
returned  to  the  Senate,  where  he  now  is,  an  honor 
to  that  body,  and,  as  an  illustration  of  the  tri 
umphs  of  integrity,  a  bright  example  to  his  race, 
among  whom  none  can  be  found  of  purer  thoughts 


128  OUR  CAUSE— OUR  CANDIDATE. 

or  loftier  emotions,  than  those  now  animating  the 
peaceful  heart  and  irradiating  the  genial  brow  of 
Hannibal  Hamlin. 

O  ye  who  would  know  man  as  man  and 
a  brother,  who,  true  to  yourselves,  would  respond 
to  the  aspirations  of  those  whose  lives  are  devoted 
to  our  cause,  we  beacon  you  to  the  standard  which 
now  floats  the  illustrious  names  of  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin,  inscribed  there  with  the  cause  of  free 
labor,  beneath  the  folds  of  which  we  glow  with  joy 
for  the  fight,  in  which  we  will  engage,  so  long  as 
man  has  the  weakness,  to  suffer  or  tyranny  the 
power  to  strike. 

June  23,  1860i 


IV. 

SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY. 

WE  prefer  to  advocate  our  principles  and  win 
support  for  them  by  their  own  commendable  fea 
tures,  rather  than  expose  and  denounce  the  de 
testable  iniquities  of  our  opponents,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  creating  an  aversion  towards  them. 

For  this  reason  the  contemptible  cant  of  Black 
^Republicanism,  negro  worshippers,  &c.,  applied  to 
us,  have  passed  unheeded  as  the  loathsome  spew 
of  the  envenomed  Shamocracy,  which  we  leave  to 
the  intelligent  to  perceive,  and  that  our  advocacy 
of  the  interests  of  the  great  laboring  classes  arises 
from  the  principles,  that  whatever  contributes  to 
our  welfare  permanently  is  the  true  element  to 
wards  the  substantial  happiness  of  all,  and  ulti 
mately  of  the  negro.  Because  slavery  has  evils 
which  we  oppose  extending  into  territories,  an 
attempt  is  made  to  attach  odium  to  us,  by  repre 
senting  us  as  abolitionists,  who  are  understood  to 
6* 


130  SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY. 

insist  upon  the  abolition  of  slavery  at  once,  and 
without  regard  to  consequences,  with  a  view  to 
the  welfare  of  the  slave,  and  under  a  fanatical 
sense  of  moral  obligations  to  pursue  this  course. 
We  oppose  slavery  in  the  territories,  not  for  a 
love  of  the  negro  but  the  white  man,  whom  we 
would  save  from  the  condition,  either  as  an  arro 
gant  slaveholder,  or  as  degraded  by  him,  in  which 
we  find  him  in  the  slave  states.  Nor  do  we  want 
the  free  blacks,  for,  degraded  as  they  are,  they 
constitute  a  pernicious  element,  like  other  unfortu 
nate  subjects  of  society — the  depraved  and  foolish 
— and  our  confidence  is,  that  the  attainment  of  our 
welfare  will  carry  that  of  theirs  also. 

But  it  may  be  pertinent,  under  present  circum 
stances,  to  call  attention  to  the  practical  workings 
of  the  great  hobby  of  our  opponents,  called 
"  Squatter  Sovereignty,"  or,  as  illustrated  by  its 
apostle,  Douglas,  is  more  properly  defined,  as  in 
our  heading,  "  Sovereign  Squattereignty."  Some 
six  years  ago,  while  the  country  was  in  profound 
quiet  over  the  subject  of  slavery,  resting  upon  the 
security  of  the  compromises  made  in  regard  to  it, 
Mr.  Douglas  convulsed  the  country  upon  the  right 
of  the  people  of  a  territory  to  vote  slavery  into 
that  portion  from  which  it  has  been  prohibited  by 
the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820.  This,  under 


SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY. 


a  great  hue  and  cry  that  the  people  possessed  ab 
solute  sway,  and  had  a  right  to  legislate  in  the 
territories,  for  or  against  slavery,  in  the  same  man 
ner  as  upon  other  property,  ardent  spirits,  &c. 

The  Eepublicans  make  issue  this  far,  that  it  is 
the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  interfere  and 
prevent  the  few,  who  first  reach  a  territory,  from 
forestalling  the  sentiments  of  the  larger  commu 
nity,  likely,  to  occupy  it,  and  should,  therefore 
protect  all  classes  of  people,  in  their  infant  state, 
against  premature  and  grasping  assumptions,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Mormons  in  Utah,  and  the  border 
ruffians  in  Kansas.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 
was  framed  with  the  most  liberal  provisions  for 
the  rights  of  the  people,  with  the  evident  design 
that  these  rights  were  to  be  used,  under  Govern 
ment  direction,  to  introduce  slavery  ;  but,  never 
theless,  these  rights  were  invested  in  the  people 
of  the  Territory,  and  a  due  regard  to  the  terms 
of  the  law  as  well  as  the  moral  obligations  in 
volved,  should  have  secured  to  the  people  the 
exercise  of  this  right  ;  and  when,  by  the  inroads 
of  border  ruffians,  sanctioned  and  aided  by  Go 
vernment  officials,  they  were  deprived  of  this 
right  and  subjected  to  most  oppressive  tyranny,  in 
palpable  violation  of  the  terms  and  spirit  of  the 
law,  Mr.  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  so  far  from 


132  SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY. 

sympathizing  with  them,  repudiates  the  principles 
of  his  own  bill,  and  joins  our  southern  enemies  in 
the  most  violent  denunciation  of  us,  and  urges  the 
penalty  of  treason  upon  those  who  oppose  the  re 
volting  tyranny  of  border  ruffianism.  Exulting 
in  the  power  of  these  Kansas  inroads,  he  would 
unite  that  of  the  General  Government,  over  the 
people,  and  in  support  of  the  Toombs'  Bill  pro 
vide  for  a  commission  to  be  appointed  by  the  cor 
rupt  executive,  who  had  lent  himself  to  these 
oppressions,  which  commission  was  to  provide  a 
State  government,  irrespective  of  the  will  of  the 
people.  And  when  at  length  the  people  assert 
their  rights  under  the  Territorial  Bill,  Mr.  Douglas 
readily  repudiates  his  own  doctrine,  by  acquiescing 
in  the  Dred  Scott  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
annulling  all  this  pretended  right  of  the  people 
over  the  subject  of  slavery,  in  the  territories, 
showing  that  all  this  clamor,  for  the  people's  rights, 
was  but  the  deceptive  art  of  the  demagogue. 

He  stands  beside  Senator  Sumner  and  witnesses 
the  inhuman  attack  upon  him,  without  a  lisp  or 
act  of  remonstrance,  for  fear  of  affronting  the 
South.  This  may  be  "  Squatter  Sovereignty  " 
with  Mr.  Douglas  and  his  friends,  but,  in  extent 
of  prostitution  to  the  demands  of  the  slave 
power,  we  do  not  see  how  he  can  squat  lower,  01 


SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY.  133 

become  more  literally  a  " Sovereign  Squatter" 
The  squat  of  the  duck,  in  a  thunder-storm,  serves 
but  a  weak  illustration  of  the  humiliating  depth 
to  which  Mr.  Douglas  has  gone  in  the  slime  of 
his  own  putrescence,  before  the  flash  and  roar  of 
his  southern  masters. 

It  is  true,  the  last  Presidential  election  de 
veloped  an  opposing  storm,  before  which  he  fain 
would  squat  to  the  attainment  of  his  end,  could 
he  rise  against  that  to  which  he  had  before  suc 
cumbed.  This  he  partially  did  in  his  Lecompton 
issue,  and  a  courageous  struggle,  persistently 
pursued,  might  have  enabled  him  to  regain  a  safe 
shelter,  but  timidity  again  arouses  morbid  appre 
hensions  from  the  overcharged  storm  on  the  John 
Brown  raid,  and  again  he  squats  to  his  meanest 
depths  before  the  southern  blasts.  We,  of  course, 
allude  to  his  scurrilous  abuse  of  us,  in  his  speech 
upon  measures  of  redress  for  such  occurrences  as 
that  of  Harper's  Ferry,  and  the  severity,  too  re 
volting  even  for  slaveholders  to  accept,  with 
which  he  proposed  to  furnish  them.  The  con 
sternation  of  the  duck  or  toad  in  a  thunder-storm 
is  sweet  tranquillity  compared  to  the  distress, 
under  these  circumstances,  of  our  "  sovereign 
squatter."  You  have  "  squat "  too  low,  my  dear 
sir,  in  the  mire  beneath  your  feet,  and  the  unceas- 


134  SOVEREIGN  SQUATTEREIGNTY. 

ing  storm,  centring  its  fury  upon  you,  shall 
keep  you  there.  Palsied  at  the  time,  you  could 
not  raise  a  helping  hand  for  a  brother  Senator, 
sinking  beneath  its  blows.  "We  now  leave  you  to 
the  impotent  struggles  with  an  overwhelming  fate 
to  which  your  morbid  ambition,  overriding  your 
discretion,  has  reduced  you. 

Quitting  this  mortifying  spectacle,  of  "Sover 
eign  Squattereignty,"  we  turn  with  joy  to  the 
bright  hopes  of  Kepublicanism,  which  requires  no 
spurious  oracles  nor  juggler's  arts  to  command 
for  it  our  affections. 

June  30, 1860. 


Y. 

ABE   WE   SUBDUED? 

"  WE  will  subdue  you,"  was  the  declaration 
of  the  British  ministry  to  our  petitioners  for 
redress  of  grievances  upon  which  our  forefathers 
warred  successfully  to  the  confusion  of  the  inso 
lent  authors  of  this  impotent  threat.  "  We  will 
subdue  you,"  was  the  language  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  to  the  people  of  Kansas,  when 
remonstrating  against  the  oppressive  tyranny  of 
the  border  ruffian  rule  ;  and  the  present  state  of 
our  people  shows  this  oracle  of  the  southern  oli 
garchy  to  have  been  about  as  prophetic  as  that 
of  their  monarchical  prototype. 

Presuming  upon  the  power  of  their  govern 
ment,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  feebleness  of  the 
colonies  on  the  other,  our  illustrious  Franklin, 
who  had  gone  to  the  mother  country  to  represent 
the  wrongs  done  the  American  colonies,  and  upon 
what  terms  a  reconciliation  could  be  effected,  and 


136  ARE  WE  SUBDUED? 

by  which  alone  a  revolution  could  be  averted, 
was  dismissed  by  the  British  ministry  from  this 
mission  with  scurrilous  abuse  to  himself,  and  the 
threat  to  his  people — "  We  will  subdue  you," — 
"  We  will  ravage  your  whole  country,  lay  your 
seaport  towns  in  ashes,"  &c.  "  My  property," 
replied  Franklin,  "consists  of  houses  in  these 
towns.  Of  these,  indeed,  you  may  make  bonfires 
and  reduce  them  to  ashes,  but  the  fear  of  losing 
them  will  never  alter  my  resolution  to  resist,  to 
the  last,  the  claims  of  Parliament."  The  sacrifices 
of  the  Kansas  people,  under  similar  threats,  show 
them,  happily,  not  destitute  of  similar  heroic 
virtues. 

Benedict  Arnold  becomes  a  traitor  to  these 
principles,  and  after  attempting  to  betray  the 
interests  with  which  he  had  been  entrusted,  he 
heads  a  party  of  our  enemies  and  goes  forth 
against  his  own  people  and  native  state,  with  the 
motto,  "We  will  subdue  you,"  to  ravage  the 
country,  lay  seaport  towns  in  ashes,  &c. ;  and  the 
burning  of  New  London  and  massacre  at  Fort 
Griswold  are  well  known  results  of  his  leader 
ship,  emblematic,  in  their  unutterable  cruelty,  of 
the  ineffable  debasement  of  treachery. 

Stephen  Arnold  Douglas — and  by  what  a  sin 
gular  coincidence  is  the  name  Arnold  here  appro- 


ARE  WE  SUBDUED?  137 

priately  found,  and  becomes  so  prominent  that  he 
is  now  generally  called  Arnold  Douglas — in  a  simi 
lar  manner  betrays  the  principles  he  had  advo 
cated  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  the  people  to  self- 
government,  and  relying  upon  the  power  of  the 
government,  and  the  weak,  distressed  condition 
of  what  he  denominates  "  Kansas  Shriekers,"  he 
denounces  them  in.  scurrilous  language,  and  de 
mands,  as  the  oracle  of  the  pro-slavery  faction, 
then  dominant  over  the  Pierce  administration, 
that  they  shall  submit  tamely  to  the  border-ruf 
fian  rule  ;  and  when  remonstrated  with,  and  told 
that  revolution  must  soon  follow,  and  that  no  fear 
of  consequences  could  alter  their  "  resolution  to 
resist,  to  the  last,  the  claims  "  so  oppressive,  he 
flashes  an  embodiment  of  rage,  raising  himself 
up  with  clenched  hands,  shakes  his  shaggy  head, 
gesticulating  with  fierceness,  strikes  his  desk,  and 
stamping  with  violence  his  feet,  exclaims,  "  We 
will  subdue  you!"  Arnold  like — as  he  is — he 
now  heads  our  enemies,  and  sets  forth  against  his 
own  people ;  and  the  atrocity  upon  Senator  Sum- 
ner,  and  the  murders  and  massacres  of  Kansas, 
under  the  subduing  process,  are  well  known 
results  of  this  arrogant  spirit,  and  to  be  traced, 
more  or  less,  to  the  moral  effect  of  his  leadership. 
The  lessons  of  Lord  North  and  Benedict 


138  ARE  WE  SUBDUED? 

Arnold  had  been  taught  in  vain  for  him ;  but  he 
learns  at  last,  in  that  dear  school  where  fools  will 
only  learn,  that  we  are  not  to  be  subdued.  A 
little  bit  further  parallel  may  be  drawn  from  his 
tory.  The  battle  of  Stillwater  and  the  espousal 
by  France  of  our  cause,  brought  Lord  North  to 
doubt  the  success  of  the  subduing  process,  and 
then,  too  late,  he  proposed  to  relinquish  it.  The 
battle  of  the  last  Presidential  election,  and  the 
effective  sympathy  for  Kansas,  has  made  this 
aspiring  ape  of  tyranny  hesitate  in  his  subjugat 
ing  career,  and,  too  late,  he  now  proposes  recon 
ciliation.  His  course,  like  that  of  Lord  North, 
gains  the  sympathy  of  a  few  forgiving  friends, 
who  now  assume  his  fervent  meekness  as  proof 
of  untainted  purity.  And  this  is  the  basis  of  merit 
to  the  support  of  which  our  aid  is  now  invoked  ! 
Ah,  Arnold  Douglas!  Arnold  Benedict  had  a 
history,  and  the  events  of  it  cannot  be  effaced 
from  the  memory  and  indignation  of  an  injured 
people;  nor,  sir,  will  the  prominent  events  of 
your  history  fail  of  proper  resentment,  so  long  as 
shame  and  outrage  inflame  the  manly  bosom  or 
rouse  the  manly  frame. 

July  14,  I860. 


YL 

THE    MORAL  OF  THE   QUESTION. 

IN  ascertaining  our  relations  to  the  world 
around  us,  we  find  by  our  observation  and  expe 
rience,  and  by  precept,  transmitting  the  wisdom 
of  preceding  ages,  that  certain  rules  and  regula 
tions  are  necessary  for  our  welfare  and  happiness. 
Some  of  these  rules  apply  to  ourselves,  in  our 
individual  capacity,  to  regulate  our  habits  of  diet, 
sleep,  industry,  amusements,  &c.,  and  others  to 
our  social  relations,  and  regulate  our  intercourse 
with  those  around  us. 

Of  these  rules,  such  as  contribute  to  our  own 
welfare  and  happiness,  and  that  of  the  community 
in  general,  are  called  Morals,  and  constitute  the 
code  of  morals  in  contradistinction  to  those  which 
are  pernicious,  and  are  called  vices,  and  constitute 
crimes.  Upon  this  view,  whatever  contributes 
most  to  our  welfare  and  that  of  the  community — 
and  so  interwoven  are  our  own  interests  with 


140  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

those  of  society,  that  whatever  we  do  for  one  is 
necessarily  done  for  the  other — is  the  highest  of 
morals ;  and,  therefore,  as  has  been  well  said  by 
our  best  of  philosophers,  we  need  no  other  rule 
for  our  guidance  than  that  of  "  our  own  self-love, 
that  universal  principle  of  action." 

And  if  in  pursuing  this  rule,  we  secure  our 
substantial  and  permanent  welfare,  this  welfare 
will  of  necessity  manifest  itself  in  som*e  physical 
advancement  and  advantages,  and  our  standard 
of  morality  may  therefore  be  assumed  to  be  that 
course  of  conduct  which,  in  the  long  run,  contri 
butes  most  to  our  physical  wealth  and  prosperity. 

Under  the  vicious  system,  spring  irregularities, 
suffering,  and  misery,  and  finally  weakness  and 
decay,  till  on  the  verge  of  despair  the  subjects  of 
it  either  sink  and  expire,  both  individually  and 
socially,  or,  by  reform,  avail  themselves  of  the 
moral  regimen,  and  return  to  prosperity  and  hap 
piness. 

The  history  of  the  world  is  full  of  the  ups  and 
downs  of  individuals  and  of  nations  under  the 
operations  of  these  laws — prosperity  begetting 
presumption,  arrogance,  and  a  disregard  of  the 
moral  law,  till  a  consequent  suffering  effects  pre 
mature  death,  or  impels  reform  and  relief.  New 
nations,  societies,  and  clans,  being  at  first  weak? 


THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

usually,  on  initiating  their  organizations  and 
institutions,  adopt  strictly  the  moral  code,  and  by 
this  means,  more  than  by  any  inherent  virtues  01 
this  system,  prosper  for  a  time,  till  pride  and  pre 
sumption  follow  with  countervailing  effects. 

Our  own  national  existence  affords  an  illustra 
tion  of  these  views.  Correct  or  moral  in  the 
administration  of  our  laws  at  home,  and  our 
intercourse  with  other  nations,  our  people  were 
contented  and  loyal,  and  through  these  means 
our  government  strong ;  while  with  our  neigh 
bors  amicable  and  disarmed  of  malice,  we  were 
secure  from  harm  abroad.  Modest  and  subdued 
from  our  toils  and  sufferings,  and  industrious 
from  our  poverty,  our  people  and  country  rose  in 
wealth,  power,  and  popularity,  and  all  eyes  turned 
in  wonder  and  admiration  upon  so  worthy  an 
example  for  observation  and  imitation. 

But  a  metamorphosis  now  interposes — while 
we  have  lost  none  of  the  elements  of  our  pros 
perity,  we  find  discordance  and  din  throughout 
our  land — discontent  at  home  and  disgrace  abroad. 
Government,  with  the  fatuity  of  James  II.,  wars 
upon  the  sacred  popular  rights  of  our  people, 
to  obtrude  an  obnoxious  institution  over  a  people 
who  refuse  to  admit  it,  and,  with  revolting  dis 
regard  of  moral  obligations,  involves  us  in  turpi- 


142  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

tude,  with'  covertly  lending  itself  to  the  slave 
trade,  and  fillibustering  schemes  against  our  neigh 
bors.  A  long  standing  compact,  which  had 
formed  an  adjustment  of  otherwise  irreconcilable 
differences  on  the  slavery  question,  is  ruthlessly 
torn  asunder,  in  utter  disregard  and  contempt  of 
the  wishes  of  one  of  the  parties  to  it,  and  border- 
ruffian  rule  stalks  unrestrained,  with  iron  heels, 
over  the  fair  surface  of  Kansas,  leaving  behind 
the  lurid  clouds  of  slavery. 

Stung  with  mortification,  and  enraged  at  these 
events,  uprose  our  masses,  who,  after  several  con 
fused  manifestations  of  feelings,  have  settled  into 
the  compact  and  effective  organization  of  the 
Eepublican  party.  An  appeal  is  now  made  in 
behalf  of  slavery  and  the  outrages  which  have 
characterized  the  attempt  to  extend  it,  to  this 
great  party  of  opposition  to  the  wrongs  and 
rapacity  of  the  Democracy,  upon  the  ground  of 
our  dogma,  with  which  we  set  out,  that  morals 
conduce  to  physical  benefits;  and  the  converse, 
that  whatever  is  highly  and  permanently  benefi 
cial  is  therefore  moral.  For  it  is  said  (and  we 
admit  it),  let  our  sophisms  be  what  they  may,  let 
perverse  theories  of  morals  arise  upon  innumera 
bly  contested  theological  points,  all  must  settle 
down  to,  and  acquiesce  in,  those  physical  results 


THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION.  143 

which  secure  us  the  greatest  wealth  and  happi 
ness.  And  as  slavery  constitutes  the  wealth  of 
the  South,  and  the  proceeds  of  slave  labor  have 
lately  enriched  it  much,  and  enhanced,  through 
its  production  of  cotton,  rice,  tobacco,  &c.,  the 
wealth  and  happiness  of  the  civilized  world, 
therefore  slavery  is  the  normal  state  of  society  in 
morals,  and  consequent  physical  results.  There 
fore  is  it  a  pious  duty  to  maintain  it  where  it  is, 
and  a  blessing  to  extend  it ;  and  plighted  faith 
broken,  a  sacred  compact  annulled,  and  obliga 
tions  to  honor  disregarded,  are  but  the  needful 
and  excusable  sacrifice  to  so  philanthropic  an 
object. 

The  sudden  rise  in  the  value  of  labor,  from  the 
opening  of  the  California  mines,  and  of  the  price 
of  cotton,  from  the  increased  demand  for  it  for 
emigrant  and  mining  life,  army  service,  and  on 
our  ships  of  commerce,  have  given  undoubted 
advancement  to  the  wealth  of  the  slave  states, 
and  to  the  value  of  the  slave,  and  this  sudden  and 
unexpected  rise  from  dilapidation  and  poverty, 
has  led  to  the  erroneous  presumption  of  merit  and 
advantage  in  the  institution  of  slavery.  For, 
though  circumstances  have  combined  to  increase 
the  prosperity  of  the  South,  the  North  has  availed 
herself  of  her  superior  industry  and  enterprise,  to 


144:  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

develop  her  wealth  to  a  degree  more  than  cor 
responding  to  that  of  the  South,  and  she,  as  well 
as  other  portions  of  the  civilized  world,  still  have 
comparatively  the  moral  advantage,  upon  the 
standard  of  physical  effects,  by  which  she  must 
still  loathe  slavery,  as  of  her  old  and  former 
aspect — the  superinducing*  cause  of  misery  and 
poverty. 

With  the  patrons  of  the  system,  upon  the 
standard  of  morals  and  of  physical  effects,  we  have 
only  to  deal  so  far  as  in  Congress  and  the  opera 
tions  of  the  G-eneral  Government  (now  unfortu 
nately  under  their  control)  their  influence  is  felt. 

How  that  influence  has  been  exerted,  was 
shown  to  some  extent,  not  long  since,  as  we  men 
tioned,  by  the  investigations  of  the  Covode  Com 
mittee,  and  the  exhibition  may  be  well  left  to  an 
intelligent  people  to  judge  of  the  morally  elevat 
ing  effects  of  the  slave  system,  and  how  far  an 
appeal  for  the  further  extension  of  it  commends 
itself  to  their  judgment. 

July  21, 18CO. 


vn. 

THE   MORAL   OF  THE   QUESTION. 

IN  our  former  article,  under  this  head,  we  con 
sidered  the  morals  of  slavery  under  the  new  and 
recent  claim  set  up  for  it,  that,  as  an  element  of 
essential  prosperity  and  wealth  to  the  South,  it 
must  be  accepted  as  of  moral  character,  because  of 
its  beneficial  physical  effects.  If  the  recent  im 
provement  of  the  South,  from  the  great  rise  in 
cotton  and  price  of  labor,  though  less  in  degree 
than  that  at  the  North,  has  made  any  converts  to 
the  system,  they  are  welcome  to  their  new  faith, 
and  we  ask  no  co-operation  for  our  cause  from 
persons  of  such  easy  virtue.  But  this  is  a  pre 
text  on  the  part  of  the  slave  interest,  to  justify 
the  position  they  have  attained  in  the  control  of 
the  national  government,  through  artifice  on 
their  part  and  subserviency  of  Northern  dough 
faces. 

At  first,  under  the  general  disapprobation  of 


146  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

the  Fathers  of  the  Kepublic,  and  the  execration  of 
the  civilized  world,  the  slave  interest  sought 
shelter  and  excuse  under  a  plea  of  having  been 
unavoidably  imposed  and  submitted  to,  and  ap 
pealed  to  the  magnanimity  of  our  national  asso 
ciation  for  its  toleration.  Not  only  has  this  tolera 
tion  been  free  and  unstinted,  but  security  of  it 
confirmed  in  our  national  organization,  and  sub 
sequent  operations  of  the  national  government- 
Though  slavery  formerly  existed  in  nearly  all  the 
States,  such  was  the  opposition  to  it  at  the  North, 
that  great  concessions  were  required  on  her  part 
to  the  relations  that  must  arise  from  its  existence 
in  the  Union.  The  generosity  of  this  concession 
and  faithful  adherence  to  it  have,  in  times  gone 
by,  had  their  happy  effects  in  mutual  confidence 
and  good-will  between  the  two  sections  of  our 
country.  But  uneasy  and  aspiring  men  South, 
affect  alarm  at  the  ranting  of  a  few  insane  aboli 
tionists  at  the  North,  and  presuming  upon  the 
generosity  of  the  North,  clamor  for  such  an  enun 
ciation  of  principles  as  shall  suit  their  wishes,  on 
the  part  of  the  party,  North,  to  which  they  shall 
give  their  support.  Though  not  united  at  first  in 
this  scheme  it  has  become  so,  and  is  now  the  lead 
ing  policy  of  Southern  statesmen,  and  with  the 
aid  of  a  few  Northern  mercenaries  such  has  been 


THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION".  147 

their  success,  that  from  affecting  fear  for  the 
safety  of  slavery  they  now  exact  a  national  sup 
port  of  it,  and  require  of  their  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  a  pledge  to  use  his  influence  for  this 
purpose,  and,  as  the  most  satisfactory  evidence  of 
his  fidelity,  that  he  shall  give  most  of  the  offices 
under  the  Government  to  Southern  men.  A  notable 
instance,  under  this  head,  has  recently  transpired. 
Our  readers  must  have  noticed  the  death  of  Gen. 
Jessup  of  the  army — a  man  of  eminence  and 
ability — who,  in  dying,  left  vacant  the  position 
he  held,  at  the  head  of  his  corps,  as  Quarter 
master-General  of  the  Army.  The  next  officer  in 
rank  to  him  in  the  Quartermaster's  corps — a  corps 
composed  of  Colonels,  Lieut.-Colonels,  Majors, 
and  Captains — was  Colonel  Thomas  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  who  being  in  regular  order  of  promotion, 
and  fitted  for  it,  was  promised  the  vacancy  by  the 
President,  who,  it  is  said,  held  out  this  promise  to 
the  latest  moment.  But  alas!  Colonel  Thomas  is 
not  from  a  slave  State,  and  a  doughface  Northern 
President  must  show  his  soundness  on  the  goose, 
and  his  subserviency  to  Southern  demands  by 
giving  this  appointment  to  one  who  is,  Colonel 
Johnson,  of  Virginia,  is  the  man,  and,  as  under 
stood,  a  fit  appointment  enough,  except  the  motives 
to  it,  and  the  cruel  disregard  of  others  eligibly 


148  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

entitled  to  it ;  if  he  were  from  the  North,  he  would 
have  no  rights  under  the  Government.  This  in 
stance  is  mentioned,  only  as  a  recent  and  promi 
nent  one,  of  the  success  under  the  present  and 
past  administrations  of  the  South  in  controlling 
the  Government  and  Government  appointments, 
upon  the  eternal  cry  of  "  Nigger  " — a  stock*  of 
political  capital  which  we  believe  to  be  well  nigh 
exhausted.  The  monopoly  of  Government  ap 
pointments  by  the  South,  is,  of  course,  well 
known,  and  the  application  of  Government  money 
to  secure  votes  and  the  election  of  Northern  men 
to  subserve  Southern  interests  has  been  partially 
shown  by  the  Covode  Committee  in  Congress. 
Our  Secretary  of  the  Navy  figures  largely  in  cor 
rupt  contracts  for  building  vessels,  furnishing 
coal,  hands,  etc.,  and  due  investigations  into  other 
departments  would  doubtless  have  made  equally 
unpleasant  exposures.  Our  exquisite  Army 
Secretary  has  already  figured  conspicuously  in 
the  Fort  Snelling  sale,  and  Willett's  Point  pur 
chase,  and  we  have  learned  of  several  transactions 
of  like  venality.  The  purchases  of  horses  and 
mules  for  the  Utah  Army  was  let  out  to  contrac 
tors  (who  of  course  wore  the  right  colors  on  the 
slavery  question)  at  enormous  rates,  and  who  sub 
let  at  about  half  these  rates.  Soon  after  these 


THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION.  149 

animals  reached  Utah,  a  mania  for  economy, 
prompts  our  loyal  Secretary  to  direct  a  prompt 
sale  of  them,  on  so  short  a  notice  and  such  arbi 
trary  conditions,  that  only  some  favored  confi 
dants  and  capitalists  can  purchase,  and  upon 
being  thus  sold  at  a  great  sacrifice,  are  again  re 
purchased  by  the  Government  in  Oregon.  The 
firm  of  Major  &  Kussell  had  a  monopolizing 
contract  to  carry  supplies  to  Utah,  and  a  large 
army  kept  there  gives  them  a  large  business  and 
corresponding  profits,  but  on  losing  this  business 
this  year,  by  being  underbid,  and  getting  that  for 
New  Mexico,  the  troops  are  at  once  transferred  to 
this  latter  place,  leaving  Utah  nearly  vacant, 
while  both  the  Secretary  and  President  admit  that 
the  Mormons  will  again  presume  upon  the  weak 
ness  of  Government  authority  there,'  to  renew 
open  hostility  to  it.  Our  troops  here  upon  our 
Indian  border,  and  upon  whom  our  safety  depends 
against  the  hostile  Kiowas  and  Camanches  hover 
ing  near  us,  are,  we  have  just  learned,  ordered  to 
a  different  station  to  swell  the  flow  of  business- 
profits  for  the  Major  &  Kussell  firm. 

Corn,  we  see  by  advertisements,  is  to  be  fur 
nished  these  distant  posts  per  transportation  of 
this  firm  from  Kansas  City,  when  in  our  vici 
nity,  at  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun- 


150  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  QUESTION. 

dred  miles  nearer,  plenty  of  corn  can  be  had  at 
a  saving  of  half  the  cost  at  Kansas  City,  and  the 
price  of  transportation  for  this  distance.  This 
business  transacted  here  would  save  one  hundred 
per  cent,  to  the  Government,  and  greatly  relieve 
our  community,  so  much  in  want  of  a  market. 
True,  our  people  are  not  sound  on  the  goose,  but 
we  regret  this  must  involve  so  much  loss  to  Go 
vernment.  We  have  heard  of  such  things  before, 
but  not  felt  them  at  our  doors.  A  contractor  was 
allowed  to  furnish  flour  in  Utah,  at  cost  in  Lea- 
venworth,  and  price  of  transportation  added, 
which  would  make  it  rate  some  $28  per  one  hun 
dred  pounds,  but  who  purchased  there  on  the 
spot,  at  from  $6  to  $8  per  one  hundred  pounds, 
and  thereby  realized  over  some  $20  per  one  hun 
dred  pounds  upon  his  contract. 

If  slavery  engenders  this  spirit,  or  exacts  of 
government  such  practices  in  its  behalf,  we  shall 
hardly  become  adherents  to  the  standard  of  morals 
claimed  for  it. 

July  28, 1860. 


YIII. 

TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION. 

SQUATTER  sovereignty,  or  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people  in  the  territories  over  their  domestic 
affairs,  including  slavery,  has  been  the  affected 
hobby  of  Mr.  Douglas,  though  in  practice,  as  we 
have  before  shown  in  our  columns,  the  readiness 
with  which  he  abandons  every  principle  that 
would  give  efficacy  to  that  term,  renders  him  a 
squatter  in  the  mire  of  self-humiliation,  and  this 
hobby  one  of  sovereign  squattereignty.  This 
was  seen  in  his  ready  acquiescence  in  the  border 
ruffian  and  federal  executive  tyranny  over  Kan 
sas,  in  violation  of  the  squatter  sovereignty  doc 
trines  in  the  Toombs'  Bill,  which  scorned  it,  and 
in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  annihilates 
every  vestige  of  it. 

To  render  the  whole  power  and  patronage  of 
the  Government  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the 
slaveholders,  and  struggling  with  a  resolution 


152  TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION. 

and  desperation  peculiar  to  his  character,  is,  and 
ever  has  been,  the  true  mission  of  Mr.  Douglas ; 
and  that  he  will  never  swerve  from  it  we  think 
evident  to  all  who  have  observed  his  direct  pur 
pose  but  tortuous  course  to  this  end. 

When  the' sentiment  of  the  country  was  so 
averse  to  slavery  that  Missouri  was  denied,  for 
two  years,  admission  to  the  Union,  because  her 
constitution  provided  for  slavery,  she  finally  came 
in  on  condition  that  the  country  west  of  her 
should  never  have  slavery.  Mr.  Douglas,  in  look 
ing  back  upon  the  trick  by  which  a  slave  State  is 
acquired,  glories  over  it,  and  rejoices  in  the  sa- 
credness  of  the  binding  contract,  "  akin  to  the 
constitution,  which  no  ruthless  hand  will  ever  be 
reckless  enough  to  disturb." 

Texas  is  admitted,  and  he  affects  fairness  to 
wards  the  North,  by  resolving  that  slavery 
shall  not  exist  north  of  36-80,  which  was  the 
Missouri  compromise  line.  Bear  in  mind  this 
line  now  has,  with  him,  no  constitutional  objec 
tions.  Our  conquests  from  Mexico  must  next 
have  their  adjustment  upon  the  slavery  issue. 
California  was  already  demanding  admission  as  a 
free  State,  and,  the  more  justly,  clamorous,  because 
the  slave  question  has  prevented  the  provision 
for  her  of  a  territorial  government. 


TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSON.  153 

Utah,  under  the  name  of  Deseret,  was  in  the 
same  condition ;  and  New  Mexico  preparing  to 
take  the  same  attitude.  General  Taylor,  then 
President,  seizing  upon  these  features,  recom 
mended  them  to  the  favor  of  Congress  as  the  best 
method  of  avoiding  the  angry  contest  over  sla 
very.  This  would  never  do ;  Mr.  Douglas,  fearing 
the  favor  of  public  sentiment,  which  required  the 
application  of  the  proviso  against  slavery,  intro 
duced  by  Mr.  Wilmot,  and  since  called  the  Wil- 
mot  proviso,  again  invokes  the  efficacy  of  the 
Missouri  compromise  line,  against  which  no  con 
stitutional  scruples  now  arise,  excusing  himself 
to  the  South  that  this  is  the  best  that  he  can  do, 
as  it  is  the  only  alternative  of  the  Wilmot  pro 
viso.  Finally,  the  territories  were  organized 
upon  the  basis  of  ignoring  the  subject  of  slavery, 
till,  on  becoming  a  state,  the  people  were  to  pro 
vide  for  or  against  slavery,  as  they  should  see 
fit. 

Kansas  now  seems  to  offer  herself  an  easy  prey 
to  the  cupidity  of  the  slaveholders  of  Missouri, 
who  being  settled  upon,  and  within  her  boun 
dary,  assured  our  pro-slavery  missionary  they 
could  easily  control  this  subject,  if  the  Missouri 
compromise  restriction  were  removed.  This  he 
sets  about  and  accomplishes,  raising  himself  the 
7* 


154  TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION. 

hand  he  had  characterized  as  ruthless,  to  disturb 
a  compact  which,  so  long  as  it  served  pro-slavery 
purposes,  was  to  be  regarded  as  "  canonized  in 
the  hearts  of  the  American  people,"  &c.,  but 
which,  now  that  it  restrains  such  purposes,  must 
be  recklessly  torn  asunder.  Kansas  is  so  framed 
as  to  be  made  an  easy  victim ;  instead  of  having 
half  of  the  newly  organized  Territory,  Nebraska 
is  given  the  most  of  it,  and  her  northern  boun 
dary  kept  somewhat  below  that  of  Missouri,  in 
order  to  be  within  the  Missouri  influence,  and  to 
prevent  contact  with  the  free  State  of  Iowa.  A 
further  precaution  in  favor  of  slavery  is  to  leave 
out  a  strip  of  half  a  degree  in  width  on  the  South, 
so  that  if  by  chance  Kansas  should  become  free, 
this  might  still  stand  a  chance  for  slavery. 

How  he  hated  and  despised  Kansas  for  her 
efforts  at  freedom,  and  how  under  the  cry,  "  We 
will  subdue  you,"  he  opposed  her,  we  have  before 
mentioned,  and  is  too  nauseous  a  subject  to  bear 
more  than  an  allusion  to  here. 

And  now  comes  on  the  stage  the  Native  Ame 
rican  party — then  called  Know-Nothings,  and  for 
stupidity  of  purpose  a  very  appropriate  name — 
which  party  suddenly  overwhelmed  many  parts 
of  the  country,  and  carried  into  Congress  so  many 
members  that  it  held  there  a  balance  of  power, 


TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION.  155 

and  for  a  long  time  prevented  the  election  of  a 
Speaker  of  the  House. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  this  party  is  of  necessity 
pro-slavery ;  its  candidate  is  avowedly  so,  and  as 
it  opposes  the  emigration  and  settlement  here  of 
persons  of  foreign  birth,  it  would  thus,  as  far  as 
possible,  check  the  flood  of  free  laborers  to  the 
West,  and  keep  it  and  all  our  unoccupied  terri 
tory  in  a  condition  for  easier  competition  on  the 
part  of  the  pro-slavery  powers.  It  is  indeed  this 
very  element  of  free  labor,  and  elevated  laborers, 
that  is  to  give  the  final  blow  to  slavery  every 
where,  and  nothing  therefore  is  more  natural  to 
the  pro-slavery  man  than  to  resort  to  his  usual 
artifice,  coeval  with  weakness  and  wickedness,  to 
arouse  a  prejudice  against  our  foreign  population, 
in  order  to  prevent  their  accession  to  this  element. 
Under  the  subtle  and  specious  disguise  of  devo 
tion  to  Americans,  enough  of  northern  Eepubli- 
cans  were  hoodwinked  to  keep  Mr.  Banks  for  a 
long  time  out  of  the  Speaker's  chair,  and  finally 
to  defeat  Mr.  Fremont  for  the  Presidency.  True 
to  their  instincts  and  the  purpose  of  their  mission, 
the  Douglas  Democrats,  who  have  played  no 
other  part  than  to  subserve  Southern  interests, 
and  invent  and  palm  off  ingenious,  but  poor  ex 
cuses,  to  the  North,  find  Mr.  Aiken's  native  Ame- 


156  TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION 

ricanism  so  congenial  to  their  purposes,  that  he 
gets  their  whole  vote  and  comes  within  one  of  as 
many  votes  as  Mr.  Banks  for  the  speakership. 

So  indignant  is  Mr.  Douglas  that  some  mem 
bers  of  the  American  party  from  the  North  voted 
for  Mr.  Banks,  that  while  he  denounces  the 
Northern  portion  of  it,  he  assures  us  at  the  same 
time,  as  Mr.  Crittenden  and  others,  that  his  terms 
do  not  apply  to  the  Americans  South.  Ameri 
canism  North  was  offensive,  but  modified  at  the 
South  with  pro-slavery  sentiments,  it  is  so  accept 
able  that  his  party  from  the  North  can  come  in 
a  body  to  the  support  for  speakership  of  the  Ame 
rican  member  from  South  Carolina. 

The  same  thing  was  continually  repeated  last 
winter  in  the  contest  for  Speakership  in  which 
the  Douglas  party  supported  American  members 
from  the  South,  in  order  to  defeat  Sherman  and 
Pennington.  A.  E.  Boteler  of  Ya.,  W.  N.  H. 
Smith  and  J.  A.  Gilmer  of  N.  C.,  H.  Maynard 
of  Tenn.,  and  others  were  so  supported.  Mr. 
Douglas  struggles  hard  to  conciliate  Northern 
men,  under  the  idea  that  he  does  not  make  the 
extension  of  slavery  and  its  protection  in  the  ter 
ritories  a  political  creed,  and  is,  in  this  respect, 
separated  from,  and  an  object  of  persecution  by, 
his  political  associates  South,  who  have  Mr.Breck- 


TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION.  157 

enridge  as  an  opposing  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency. 

Following  him  in  his  subtle  windings,  we 
find  him  still  undeviating  from  his  first  love,  and 
desperate  as  ever  in  his  plottings  to  secure  the 
ascendency  of  the  pro-slavery  party  at  every 
sacrifice  of  self  and  self-interest.  For,  as  matters 
now  stand,  Mr.  Breckenridge,  with  his  pro-slavery 
platform,  must  get  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  South 
ern  States,  but  none  of  the  Northern  ones,  and 
between  him  and  Mr.  Lincoln  the  latter  must  be 
elected.  But  Mr.  Douglas  must  now  step  in  with 
a  view  to  get  a  few  northern  states,  so  as  to  defeat 
Lincoln's  election  by  the  people,  and  thus  throw 
the  election  into  the  House  of  Eepresentatives 
where,  with  a  little  manipulation  of  the  American 
states  of  Maryland,  Tennessee,  and  North  Caro 
lina,  Mr.  Breckenridge  can  be  elected,  as  all  the 
other  slave  states  are  in  his  favor,  and  California 
and  Oregon,  with  their  present  delegation,  may  be 
relied  upon  for  him. 

If  Mr.  Breckenridge  is  not  elected  by  the 
House,  no  one  will  be,  and  Joe  Lane,  who  will 
be  made  Vice-President  by  the  Senate,  will  then 
become  President,  and  it  is  known  that,  being  a 
Northern  dough -face,  his  pro-slavery  isrn  commends 
him  equally  with  Mr.  Breckenridge  to  Mr.Douglas. 


158  .       TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION. 

Everybody  must  see  that  the  only  effect,  there 
fore,  of  Mr.  Douglas  running,  must  be  to  divert 
votes  from  Lincoln,  so  as  to  effect  the  election  of 
Breckenridge  by  the  House,  or  of  Lane  by  the 
Senate  to  the  presidency. 

And  were  he  in  earnest  in  his  pretended  oppo 
sition  to  them,  his  natural  course  would  be,  as  he 
knows  he  cannot  be  elected  himself,  to  withdraw 
from  the  contest  and  allow  them  to  be  defeated 
by  Lincoln,  when  seeing  the  miscarriage  of  the 
pro-slavery  creed  the  Breckenridge  party  might 
learn,  through  adversity,  to  conform  to  his — 
Douglas's — pretended  standard,  and  support  it  as 
the  only  alternative  of  success  in  another  contest. 
Such  would  be  our  advice  to  Mr.  Douglas  were 
we  his  friend,  and  wished  to  save  him  from  utter 
and  irretrievable  mortification  and  disgrace. 

But  it  is  evident  any  calamity  to  himself  is  of 
less  importance  than  to  the  idol  of  his  affections 
— the  pro-slavery  cause ;  and  sink  deep  as  he 
must,  he  will  never  despair  of  raising  thereby 
Breckenridge  or  Lane  to  the  presidency.  This 
he  expected  to  do  of  his  own  strength,  but  find 
ing  it  unlikely  that  he  would  carry  a  State,  by 
which  to  defeat  Lincoln,  now  he  turns  to  his 
natural  allies,  in  the  pro-slavery  work — the  Ame 
rican  party — for  help.  Hence  the  Union  of  the 


TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION.  159 

Douglas  and  American  parties  in  the  state  of  New 
York,  to  carry  that  state  against  Lincoln,  and,  as 
we  have  shown,  with  no  other  view  than  to  raise 
Breckenridge  or  Lane  to  the  presidency — an  object 
evidently  desirable  to  both  these  parties.  Thus, 
affecting  love  for  the  foreigner,  and  a  desire  to 
extend  his  rights  to  the  new  territories,  Mr.  Doug 
las  would  marshal  the  Irish  and  German  hosts  to 
his  standard  merely  to  march  them  over  to  sub 
serve  their  natural  and  avowed  enemies,  the  pro- 
slavery  and  native  American  party.  We  have 
heard  the  Irish  accused  of  being  led  by  their  pas 
sions,  and  blinded  easily  by  priests  and  dema 
gogues,  so  as  to  be  brought  to  kiss  the  rod  uplift 
ed  for  their  affliction,  and  thus  defeat  measures 
otherwise  effective  for  their  amelioration.  Will 
you  justify  this  charge,  and  now  plunge  with 
Douglas  into  the  pool  of  self-generated  slime  in 
which  he  delights  to  wallow,  and  inbreeding  there 
the  infection  of  the  Douglas-Bell  democracy, 
bear  with  you,  ever  after,  that  brand  of  self  pollu- 
-tion,  which  shall  render  you  not  only  unworthy 
of  sympathy,  but  objects  of  abhorrence  to  those 
who  now  seek  your  own,  and  our  national  eleva 
tion  ?  Or  will  you  unite  with  us  as  co-laborers 
to  strengthen  those  hands,  which,  we  are  confident, 
are  soon  to  become  invested  with  this  office  of  our 


160  TRUE  TO  HIS  MISSION. 

national  elevation  and  redemption  from  its  pre 
sent  humiliation  and  disgrace  before  the  enlight 
ened  world? 

To  the  Americans  of  the  Hunt,  Brooks  &  Co. 
school  we  make  no  appeal — such  we  know  to  be 
constitutional  aristocrats.  Envenomed  at  the  loss 
of  power  their  own  Whig  party  had  for  sustaining 
an  oligarchy,  they  actually  see,  in  the  aristocracy 
founded  on  property  in  u  niggers,"  a  still  linger 
ing  ray  of  hope  for  their  futile  schemes,  to  which 
they  will  cling  with  all  the  malignity  and  heart 
less  infatuation  of  their  natures.  But  those  who 
four  years  ago  believed  Americanism  meant  some 
thing  else  than  slavery,  we  invite  to  the  ways  of 
pleasantness  and  paths  of  peace,  along  which,  with 
the  cause  of  humanity,  we  intend  to  bear  ABBA- 
HAM  LINCOLN  amid  the  chorus  of  our  emanci 
pated  Nation. 

September  11,  1860. 


IX. 

FITNESS  FOE  THE   PRESIDENCY. 

"  Is  he  capable,  is  he  faithful,  is  he  true  to  the 
Constitution  ?"  were  the  tests  for  office  laid  down 
by  the  great  apostle  of  liberal  statesmanship — 
Thomas  Jefferson. 

We  propose  to  apply  these  tests  to  the  candi 
dates  for  the  presidency  now  before  the  people. 

To  possess  intelligence,  so  as  to  discriminate 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  integrity  to  em 
brace  and  adhere  to  what  is  right,  should  seem  to 
include  all  the  considerations  necessary  to  qualify 
a  person  for  any  trust  or  responsibility ;  but  in 
view  of  constitutional  obligations  this  is  not 
enough,  and  requires  the  third  test  of  being  true 
to  the  Constitution.  This  requirement  laid  down 
by  Jefferson  was  found  to  be  not  gratuitous  by 
his  own  political  experience.  He  and  the  elder 
Adams  were  respectively  at  the  head  of  opposing 
parties,  and  while  he  did  not  approve  the  policy 


162  FITXEsS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

of  his  opponent,  which  had  an  illiberal  and  an 
aristocratic  tendency,  violative  of  the  spirit,  if  not 
the  letter,  of  our  Constitution,  he  did  not  impute 
to  him  a  want  of  either  intelligence  or  integrity, 
for  it  was  possible  with  Adams,  as  with  many 
minds,  both  then  and  now,  of  the  highest  order 
and  greatest  purity,  to  regard  certain  measures  of 
aristocracy,  or  inequality,  necessary  to  the  safety 
of  a  State ; — a  privileged  party  identified  with 
the  safety  of  a  State,  and  dependent  upon  its 
prosperity,  who  are  set  to  watch  over  and  control 
those  whose  labor  and  industry  constitute  this 
prosperity,  but  whose  virtues  are  assumed  to  be 
so  low  as  to  unfit  them  for  self-control,  and  ren 
der  them  mischievous  without  the  restraints  irn 
posed  by  an  upper  class.  This  is  the  present 
position  of  many  earnest,  and  we  doubt  not  honest 
advocates  of  slavery  ;  and  we  are  aware  how  hard 
our  opponents  now  and  in  times  past  have  striven 
to  establish  this  principle  in  our  free  States. 

Mr.  Jefferson  assumed  the  opposite  of  this  as 
his  own  political  creed,  and  as  the  true  spirit  of 
our  Constitution ;  and  the  happy  effects  of  his  glo 
rious  triumph  may  be  taken  as  the  index  to  the 
results  we  confidently  anticipate  as  the  issue  to 
the  struggle  now  impending. 

In  considering  Mr.  Breckenridge  upon  the  Jef- 


FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

fersonian  standard,  we  find  essential  Iv  necessary 
the  third  point :  "  Is  he  true  to  the  Constitu 
tion  ?" 

^Ve  do  not  need  to  examine  the  two  first  points 
to  find  exceptions :  he  may  be  capable,  he  may 
be  faithful ;  or,  in  other  words,  he  may  be  intel 
ligent  and  honest,  but  we  thoroughly  scorn  and 
revolt  at  his  assumption  th:it  our  Constitution  car 
ries  slavery  into  the  territories,  and  requires 
Congressional  protection  there.  In  this  he  is  not 
true  to  tf\e  Constitution. 

Mr.  Bell,  as  a  pro-slavery  man,  is  in  the  same 
attitude,  and  technically  liable  to  the  same  objec 
tions.  To  this  he  adds  the  policy  of  opposing 
the  migration  and  settlement  of  foreigners  in  our 
country,  so  as  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
rapid  settlement  of  the  territories  by  free  labor 
ers. 

Our  Declaration  of  Independence  denounces 
King  Greorge  III.  that  *•  He  has  endeavored 
to  prevent  the  population  of  these  States :  for 
that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws  of  naturaliza 
tion  of  foreigners,*'  which  is  precisely  the  attitude 
of  Mr.  Bell  towards  our  territories,  When  we 
are  ready  to  renounce  the  principles  of  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  give  up  this  glorious 
charter  of  freedom,  and  return  to  the  rule  of  some 


164:  FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

George  III.  of  England,  then,  and  then  only, 
will  we  greet  Mr.  Bell,  his  associates,  and  New 
York  confederates  as  true,  not  to  our  Constitu- 
tution,  but  to  some  obsolete  British  Constitution, 
congenial  to  Native  Americanism.  Mr.  Bell  won 
a  good  name,  and  deserved  thanks  for  his  manly 
course  in  opposing  the  Missouri  Compromise  Re 
peal  and  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  we 
regret  he  is,  by  his  present  course,  likely  to  for 
feit  the  esteem  in  which  he  has  been  held  by  the 
public — evincing,  indeed,  questionable  integrity 
in  joining  the  Douglas  party,  which  affects  to 
despise  the  American  party.  But,  as  mentioned 
before  by  us,  this  is  but  a  trick  by  which  to  get 
the  foreign  vote,  through  Douglas,  to  subserve 
the  southern  interest. 

To  Mr.  Douglas  our  test  is  so  obviously  inap 
plicable,  that  we  turn  with  loathing  and  disgust 
from  the  attempt.  When  language  has  the  use 
Richelieu  ascribed  to  it,  of  being  the  means  of 
disguising  our  thoughts,  then  will  the  terms  capa 
ble,  faithful,  and  true  to  the  Constitution  have 
their  ironical  application  to  Mr.  Douglas. 

Degrade  him  from  the  chairmanship  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Territories — give  him  a 
spurious  nomination  for  the  Presidency  and  a 
sham  support — anything  his  Southern  masters 


FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY.  165 

may  require,  and  he  is  happy,  so  long  as  thereby 
he  can  serve  them  ;  no  position  too  false,  no  hu 
miliation  too  deep  for  this  labor  of  love : 

"  Look  down — your  head  begins  to  swim, 
Still  deeper  yet — that  pleases  him, 
If  he  can  yet  shout  '  nigger.'  " 

It  only  remains  to  consider  our  test  in  reference 
to  Mr.  Lincoln.  That  he  has  capacity  is  seen  in 
the  fact,  that  from  an  humble,  if  not  obscure  po 
sition,  he  has  risen  to  the  auspicious  attitude  he 
now  holds,  having  in  the  course  of  this  advance 
ment  been  placed  in  many  important  positions  of 
trust  and  responsibility,  and,  as  we  said  some 
time  since,  the  capacity  and  fidelity  evinced  on 
these  occasions  secured  to  him  so  much  confidence 
and  affection,  that  bis  friends  persisted  tenaciously 
and  successfully  in  his  nomination  for  the  Presi 
dency. 

In  the  canvas  of  Illinois  for  the  Senatorship,  he 
offered  to  discuss  the  issues  between  himself  and 
Mr.  Douglas,  before  the  people,  to  which  Mr. 
Douglas  relying  upon  his  usual  arrogance  and  im 
pudence,  rather  than  upon  force  of  argument,  as 
sented,  and  they  commenced  the  work  of  stumping 
the  State  together,  but  had  not  gone  far  when  Mr. 
Lincoln's  conservatism  and  candor  confounded 
the  false  accusations  made  by  Douglas  of  section- 


166  FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

alism,  and  won  him  great  popularity  with  the 
people.  Thereafter  Mr.  Douglas  refused  to  meet 
him  in  discussion.  Upon  this  discussion,  Mr.  Ben 
jamin — pro-slavery  from  Louisiana — remarked, 
that  it  evinced  sentiments  which  commended  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  him  over  Douglas.  The  objection 
raised  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  party  is,  that  they 
are  sectional ;  and  Mr.  Douglas,  Mr.  Filmore,  and 
others,  at  the  North,  clamor  that  he  is  not  conci 
liatory  enough  towards  slaveholders.  Yet  both 
these  horror-struck  alarmists,  before  becoming  de 
moralized  by  a  morbid  malice  and  a  mania  for 
office  were  as  much  sectional  as  he ;  both  then  sup 
ported  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  said  hard  things 
against  slavery.  Mr.  Filmore,  now  a  pro-slavery 
Bell  man,  in  1838  said  he  opposed  the  admission 
of  Texas  as  a  slave  State,  the  slave  trade  between 
the  States,  and  was  in  favor  of  abolishing  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Mr.  Lincoln's  crime 
is,  that  he  will  not  stultify  his  integrity  to  play 
the  (^magogue.  He  at  this  time  opposed  the 
passage,  by  the  Illinois  Legislature,  of  certain 
abolition  resolutions,  and  entered  his  protest  upon 
the  journal,  "  that  the  promulgation  of  abolition 
doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  abate  its 
(slavery's)  evils;"  that  Congress  has  no  power 
over  slavery  in  the  States ;  that  though  Congress 


FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY.  167 

had  power  over  the  matter  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia,  "  that  power  ought  not  to  be  exercised 
unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  said  Dis 
trict."  It  is  this  obvious  integrity  and  sense  of 
justice  that  commends  Mr.  Lincoln  to  his  friends 
and  conciliates  his  enemies.  He  is  capable,  he  is 
faithful,  and  these  views  show  that  he  is  not 
amenable  to  the  constitutional  objections  raised 
against  him. 

In  being  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery 
to  the  new  territories,  he  is  in  entire  concurrence 
with  the  sentiment  of  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution,  who  sought  to  free  the  Government  from 
all  complicity  with  slavery  or  any  religious  creed. 
They  did  so,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  following  them, 
is  true  to  the  Constitution. 

To  a  private  life  of  purity,  he  adds  a  public 
character  of  unspotted  integrity  and  of  consistency, 
and  possessing  highly  practical  abilities,  we  have 
in  Abraham  Lincoln  a  man  of  associations,  cha 
racter,  and  habits  eminently  fitted  for  the  Presi 
dency. 

For  purposes  of  State  policy  our  National  Ex 
ecutive  is  invested  with  great  power,  both  of 
direct  authority  and  indirectly  through  his  pa 
tronage.  This  has  been  totally  prostituted  to 
the  slave  interest,  with  all  the  moral  influence, 


168  FITNESS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

happily  now  small,   that   could  be   forced  into 
this  service. 

"  The  oppressor's  wrong,  the  proud  man's  con 
tumely,  the  pangs  of  despised  love,  the  law's  de 
lay  (and  perversion),  the.  insolence  of  office,  and 
the  spurns  that  patient  merit,  of  the  unworthy, 
takes,"  have  all  had  their  office  in  this  pro-slavery 
work,  till  the  corruptions  of  power  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  debasement  of  servile  men  on  the 
other,  call  aloud  in  agonizing  tones,  from  rock, 
tree,  hill,  vale,  and  plain,  and  in  impetuous  echoes 
resound  through  the  skies,  with  the  demand  for 
a  reform,  conspicuous  of  which  the  time  and  the 
man  are  at  hand. 

Sept.  22, 1860 


X. 

THE  SECRET  OF   IT. 

THE  causes  of  our  national  revolution,  which 
separated  us  from  the  British  Government,  and 
which  was  formally  initiated  in  our  Declaration 
of  Independence,  in  which  these  causes  are  so 
pathetically  and  eloquently  recited,  were  under 
stood  to  consist  in  grievances  too  intolerable  to 
be  borne  by  men  unwilling  to  be  slaves,  and  to 
meet  these  grievances  our  forefathers  of  that  day, 
under  a  sense  of  their  own  wrongs,  rose  to  a 
height  of.  moral  grandeur,  seemingly  above  men, 
and  with  lips  of  fire  boldly  proclaimed  the  ina 
lienable  rights  of  man,  for  which,  with  hearts  of 
steel,  they  strove  in  the  ensuing  desperate,  pro 
tracted,  but  triumphant  struggle. 

The  lofty  sentiments  with  which  they  were 
inspired,  the  heroism  with  which  they  were  sus 
tained,  the  sacrifices  and  pains  they  endured,  and 
the  glorious  objects  they  accomplished,  in  effect- 


170  THE  SECRET  OF  IT. 

ing  our  independence,  and  the  establishment  of 
our  Government,  have  all  been  exhaustless  themes 
of  our  gratitude,  for  the  inestimable  favors  thus 
secured  to  us. 

With  such  sacred  appreciation  have  these  favors 
been  regarded,  that  the  ark  of  the  covenant — our 
system  of  Government — by  which  they  have  been 
transmitted  to  us  has,  till  lately,  been  regarded 
as  the  summum  bonum  of  our  race,  the  lightest 
disaffection  for  which,  or  indifference,  aroused 
our  deepest  abhorrence  and  scorn  for  the  calloused 
susceptibilities  that  could  find  outside  of  it  a  com 
pensating  good,  adequate  to  the  sufferings  its  loss 
or  serious  injury  must  impose. 

In  contrast  to  this,  we  now  find  disunion  of  our 
Government,  and  disaffection  for  its  priceless 
liberties,  announced  with  pompous  arrogance,  as 
popular  sentiments,  and  as  the  alternative  of  not 
having  the  national  Government  administered  to 
the  advancement  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 

To  an  observer  of  current  events,  the  secret  is 
not  that  slave  owners  want  more  slaves,  or  slave 
States,  as  a  means  of  making  more  secure  and 
profitable  this  species  of  property ;  for,  upon  ex 
amination,  there  is  not  a  feature  wanting  on  this 
head,  which  could  be  supplied  by  such  means. 
The  institution  carries  in  itself  the  elements  of 


THE  SECRET  OF  IT 


deterioration  and  weakness  to  those  who  tolerate 
it,  and  has  been  at  all  times  so  characterized,  and 
most  pathetically  so,  by  enlightened  statesmen 
who  are  familiar  with  it.  These,  the  graphic 
and  prophetic  effects  of  it,  depicted  by  the  im 
mortal  Jefferson,  should  alone  prove  the  word 
sufficient  to  wise  men  who  would  take  heed  how 
they  hear.  But  it  is  the  infatuation  of  the.  times, 
and  the  unscrupulous  selfishness  of  demagogues, 
that  words  of  wisdom  and  suggestions  of  prudence 
—the  fruits  of  bitter  experience  —  are  scouted  as 
the  mantling  mist  of  stagnant  fogyism,  till  misap 
prehension,  perversion,  and  folly  have  brought 
us  to  the  present  state  of  absurd  wrangling  rather 
than  dangerous  antagonism. 

This  state  of  deterioration  and  weakness,  which 
is  the  inevitable  concomitant  of  slavery,  has  na 
turally  enough  awakened  alarm  with  those  who 
tolerate  it,  for  their  own  safety,  and  for  that  of  the 
institution  itself.  The  slave  insurrection  of  1832, 
showed  their  apprehensions  well  grounded,  and 
the  generous  guarantees  of  support,  both  from 
the  government,  through  the  army  and  navy,  and 
that  volunteered  from  the  North,  gave  every 
needed  assurance  of  sympathy  for  the  South,  and 
earnest  devotion  to  oar  institutions.  Happy  if 
the  South  had  seen  and  met  these  tilings  in  their 


172  THE  SECRET  OF  IT. 

true  spirit !  But  now  start  up  uneasy  politicians, 
who,  Calhoun  and  Douglas-like,  traffic  on  the 
gullibility  of  the  people,  and  assume  supernatural 
powers  to  foresee  direful  visions,  portending  dis 
aster  to  their  darling  pet  of  slavery,  to  which  they 
affect  such  a  devotion,  overriding  all  other  con 
siderations,  as  to  evince  the  sure  qualifications 
for  office. 

This  scheme  succeeded  so  well,  that  no  man 
could  get  to  Congress  or  any  other  office,  at  the 
South,  upon  any  other  basis,  and  at  once  the  hue 
and  cry  of  "  niggerism"  is  started,  as  the  effective 
evidence  of  fealty  to  a  deluded  constituency. 

Upon  this  ground  Southern  men  were  insisted 
upon  for  the  Presidency,  as  security  on  the  one 
hand  against  unfavorable  executive  action  towards 
slavery,  and  on  the  other,  against  executive  pa 
tronage  adverse  to  its  interests.  So  uniform  was 
Southern  sentiment  in  these  respects  as  to  form 
in  the  main  but  one  party,  and  therefore  between 
the  nearly  equally  divided  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties  North,  that  one  was  sure  of  political  as 
cendency  which  should  be  found  congenial  to 
Southern  sentiment.  It  is  easily  seen  that  in  an 
earnest  struggle  a  party  had  great  inducements 
therefore  to  court  this  party  of  unanimous  South 
ern  sentiment,  and  in  this  effort  both  parties 


THE  SECRET  OF  IT.  173 

strove  hard,  but  the  Democratic  party  succeeded, 
by  trimming  party  sails,  and  decking  party  lead 
ers,  to  suit  their  fastidious  Southern  allies.  So 
patent  was  this  scheme  of  success  to  party  lead 
ers,  that  they  of  the  North  had  only  to  sacrifice 
much  of  their  party  interests  and  principles,  that 
by  so  doing,  they  pandered  to  Southern  demands 
so  as  to  secure  an  undivided  support  from  that 
quarter. 

Ever  since  this  policy  was  initiated  by  Calhoun, 
in  behalf  of  the  South,  tricky  political  hucksters, 
North,  have  been  playing  at  this  game — Mr.  Yan 
Buren  proclaiming  himself  a  Northern  man  with 
Southern  principles,  so  necessary  were  his  south 
ern  proclivities  to  attainment  of  office. 

And  when,  at  times,  Northern  men  become 
aroused  to  this  imposition,  and  evince  a  disposi 
tion  to  revolt  at  it,  the  sacred  ties  and  devotion 
to  the  Union,  to  which  we  alluded  above,  have  no 
binding  force  for  the  South,  but  our  Northern  ears 
are  dinned  by  our  political  scavengers  and  patent 
right  Union  saviours,  with  the  dangers  of  dis 
union,  and  rhapsodies  upon  the  value  of  the  Union, 
its  cost,  and  the  consequences  of  its  loss,  till  satis 
fied  it  can  only  be  saved,  and  our  political  disor 
ders  cured  by  their  superior  elixirpharmacy.  In 
this  way,  for  some  time  past,  small  men  and  poli- 


174  THE  SECRET  OF  IT. 

tical  adventurers  have  gained  position  only  to 
disgrace  it,  and  render  its  patronage  arid  power 
subservient  to  the  wishes  of  Southern  men,  who 
taking  advantage  of  our  susceptible  devotion  to  the 
Union,  have  only  to  threaten  us  with  disunion  to 
raise  an  army  of  ready  apology  office-seekers,  to 
sway  us  with  their  sophistries  to  the  necessity  of 
yielding.  The  Douglas  and  Bell  men  North, 
under  their  respective  leaders,  Douglas  and  Fil- 
more,  are  now  in  this  condition,  whining  vagaries 
and  unmeaning  misgivings  about  the  sectionalism 
of  the  Lincoln  men,  in  order  to  coerce  them  into 
the  -support  of  measures  revolting  to  them.  Mr. 
Douglas  affects  a  show  of  independence,  and 
thereby  has  subjected  himself  to  the  charge  of 
sectionalism  by  his  late  Lecompton  opposition, 
but  this  was  a  necessity  to  save  some  little  force 
North,  without  which  a  united  South  could  not 
save  him. 

The  secret,  therefore,  of  the  matter  is,  that  upon 
a  clamor  for  disunion  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
Northern  men  and  parties,  for  sake  of  office  and 
place,  pander  to  this  clamor,  to  the  monopoly,  by 
the  South,  of  the  patronage  of  the  Government, 
and  the  swaying  of  executive  power  in  its  behalf; 
and  the  eternal  cry  of  "  nigger"  is  but  the  hollow 
pretence  for  this  clamor. 


THE  SECRET  OF  IT.  175 

How  well  they  have  succeeded  we  have  lately 
mentioned  in  part,  and  it  is  evident  by  the  un 
blushing  effrontery  with  which  this  trick  is  now 
pursued,  but  with  an  unscrupulous  selfishness  sure 
to  defeat  its  own  ends ;  and  thus,  aside  from  the 
auspices  of  the  occasion,  we  have  a  prophetic  in 
dication  of  the  return,  at  last,  to  the  true  policy 
of  our  Government. 

Sept.  29, 1860. 


XI. 

OUR  GRIEVANCES. 

THE  present  prospect  of  the  election  to  the 
Presidency  of  Abraham  Lincoln  again  raises  the 
cry  of  1856  from  the  South  against  the  election 
of  a  Republican  President,  that  such  an  event 
will  justify  the  Southern  or  slave  States  in  sepa 
rating  from  the  Northern  or  free  States,  and  that, 
as  a  duty  to  their  own  rights  and  self-respect, 
they  are  determined  to  do  it.  In  other  words,  the 
proposition  literally  stands,  if  the  North,  goaded 
by  the  arrogance  of  the  South,  backed  by  the  sub 
serviency  of  the  Government  power  to  its  pur 
poses,  dares  to  assert  its  constitutional  right  of 
voting  for  and  electing  a  Republican  President, 
this  shall  constitute  a  grievance  too  intolerable  to 
be  borne,  and  disunion  must  follow.  A  fawning 
Pierce,  sunk  in  truculency,  figuratively  emascu 
lates  his  person  of  manhood  and  his  office  of  vir 
tue,  a  blear-eyed  old  hypocrite  now  occupying 


OUR  GRIEVANCES.  177 

the  White  House,  whose  visual  obliquity  corre 
sponds  to  that  of  his  moral  sentiments,  falsifies 
his  oath  of  office,  his  promises  and  obligations,  in 
order  to  comply  with  the  demands  of  the  pro- ' 
slavery  power,  to  which  the  North  is  required  to 
submit,  and  tremblingly  refrain  from  daring  once 
to  express  opposition,  on  pain  of  disunion,  with 
all  the  rage,  revenge,  hate,  blood,  thunder,  dust, 
sword  and  destruction,  to  say  nothing  of  smoke 
and  gas,  which  shall  overwhelm  us  as  by  magic 
from  the  wrath  of  the  South. 

What  grievances  cause  all  this  uproar,  and 
what  their  remedies,  we  earnestly  inquire.  Com 
plaint  is  made  that  the  people  of  the  North  will 
not  give  up  slaves  who  escape  from  slavery  and 
take  refuge  amongst  them.  Will  disunion 
remedy  this  ?  Will  a  Southern  Confederacy  have 
less  dissatisfied  slaves,  or  more  power  to  silence 
these  longings  for  freedom,  and  keep  out  those 
who  excite  this  longing  ?  The  Southern  States 
possess  all  power  now  over  these  matters.  But 
says  the  South,  you  are  under  constitutional 
obligations  to  give  up  fugitive  slaves,  and  as  you 
will  not  do  it,  we  will  save  our  self-respect  and 
dignity  by  refusing  a  voluntary  union  with  such 
faithless  associates.  Suppose  this  true,  and  a 
just  cause  for  disunion,  the  question  arises,  Why 
8* 


178  OUR  GRIEVANCES. 

is  the  election  of  Lincoln  to  determine  this  period 
for  the  vindication  of  a  right  long  since  due  the 
South  ?  For  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  a  few  more 
votes,  by  which  Lincoln  may  be  elected,  are  to 
change  Northern  sentiment  on  this  question — nor 
indeed  are  more  votes  wanted,  comparatively — for 
without  the  frauds  in  Illinois  and  Pennsylvania, 
at  the  last  Presidential  election,  Fremont  would 
have  been  elected.  But  according  to  admissions, 
this  ground  for  disunion  now  exists,  and  has  for 
a  long  time  existed,  and  therefore  the  election  of 
Lincoln  can  in  no  way  aggravate  this  provoca 
tion. 

On  this  ground,  disunion  should  have  been 
under  way  before  this  time.  Thus  far  our  argu 
ment  admits  there  are  grounds  of  complaint  upon 
this  head  ;  but  this  we  deny.  In  the  earlier  his 
tory  of  our  Government,  some  rare  instances  of 
opposition  to  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves 
occurred,  but  no  resistance.  Not  till  after  1832, 
which  dates  the  momentous  era  of  slavery  excite 
ment,  did  resistance  arise,  and  an  examination 
into  the  facts  of  the  case  will  show  about  as  many 
beams  in  the  eyes  of  our  Southern  brethren,  as 
there  are  motes  of  which  they  complain  in  those  of 
our  Northern  people. 

This  was  the  notorious  period  of  those  slave 


OUR  GRIEVANCES.  179 

insurrections  of  the  secession  nullification  schemes 
of  Calhoun,  and  his  dogma  of  equal  political 
power  between  the  slave  and  non-slaveholding 
States.  At  this  time  several  innocent  persons 
from  the  North  were  seized  and  executed 
by  mobs,  for  supposed  abolition  sentiments, 
and  colored  citizens  of  Northern  States  were, 
upon  arriving  at  the  South,  seized  and  im 
prisoned. 

Judge  Hoar  was  sent  to  South  Carolina  to  pro 
secute  there,  before  the  United  States  Courts,  the 
rights  of  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  but  was 
forced  to  leave  the  State.  No  Government  power 
here  interposed  to  enforce  constitutional  rights. 
Here  is  a  direct  and  open  violation  of  the  consti 
tutional  provision  that  "  the  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immuni 
ties  of  citizens  in  the  several  States,"  and  the 
courts,  provided  to  enforce  constitutional  rights, 
are  forcibly  deterred  from  this  discharge  of  their 
duties.  Such  discourtesies  and  want  of  faith, 
under  the  national  compact,  aroused  more  or  less 
indignation  at  the  North,  and  thereupon  uprose 
the  abolition  organizations,  which  before  had  no 
existence,  and  which,  upon  aggravations  of  the 
occasion,  assumed  a  strength  of  number  and  vio 
lence  of  temper  which  required  the  stern  efforts 


180  OUR  GRIEVANCES. 

of  conservative  men  to  successfully  oppose.  Now, 
for  a  series  of  years,  were  occasional  acts  of 
resistance  to  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  though  no  more  than  due,  by  way  of 
retaliation,  upon  the  South  for  a  want  of  fulfil 
ment  of  constitutional  obligations  to  the  rights  of 
Northern  citizens,  it  was  not  countenanced  by 
any  effective  or  uniform  sentiment  at  the  North, 
and  when  complaint  was  made  by  the  South,  our 
Congress-men  admitted  grounds  for  it,  and  an 
nounced  readiness  to  adopt  the  needful  remedies, 
and  at  once  allowed  the  Southern  members  to 
form  the  present  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  1850  in  the 
most  severe  terms,  justifying  objections  made  to 
it,  that  it  gave  means  to  kidnap,  and  through 
fraud  and  violence,  force  off  into  slavery  free 
colored  persons  of  the  North.  This  has  been 
done,  and  notwithstanding  this  revolting  feature, 
the  North  acquiesced  in  this  and  other  measures 
of  1850,  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  slavery  ques 
tion,  and  the  attempts  afterwards  to  capture  fugi 
tive  slaves  were  eminently  successful.  The 
election  of  Franklin  Pierce  followed  in  1852, 
upon  the  basis  of  a  firm  adherence  to  the  compro 
mises  of  1850,  and  never,  since  the  origin  of  the 
party  were  abolitionists,  so  weak  and  unpopular. 
It  was  a  matter  of  notoriety  that  their  conven- 


OUR  GRIEVANCES.  181 

tions,  in  the  spring  of  Mr.  Pierce's  inauguration, 
had  little  attendance  and  no  enthusiasm,  and  the 
party  was  dying  out  for  want  of  countenance.  In 
this  state  of  quietude,  returning  confidence  and 
fraternal  feeling,  is  sprung  upon  us  that  infamous 
breach  of  good  faith  and  act  of  national  demo 
ralization,  for  which  its  ill-advised  and  unscrupu 
lous  author,  now  seeking  support  for  the  Presi 
dency,  deserves  the  unalterable  execration  of  his 
race.  The  wanton  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  unavoidably  aroused  rage,  indignation^ 
and  distrust,  which  were  soon  manifest  at  the 
North  by  an  indifference  to  adhere  longer  to 
any  obligations  on  the  slavery  question  towards 
those  who  utterly  disregarded  theirs  ;  and  if,  for 
some  time,  fugitive  slaves  could  not  be  re 
captured,  the  South  has  only  itself  to  blame  for 
having  unnecessarily  aggravated  this  state  of 
things. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  averted  disunion, 
and  averting  or  abrogating  it,  restored  disunion 
or  the  right  of  it  in  the  opinion  of  many  at  the 
North.  It  was  this  revolutionary  spirit  that 
caused  so  much  resistance  to  the  recapture  of 
Burns,  in  Boston,  and  upon  the  ground  of  revo 
lution,  as  j  ustifiable,  for  we  recognise  the  right  of 
revolution,  but  not  otherwise;  for,  if  we  are 


182  OUR  GRIEVANCES. 

to  form  a  'part  of  the  Union,  deriving  our 
advantages  from  its  existence,  name,  and  power, 
we  must  fulfil  our  obligations  to  it,  and  therefore, 
as  the  North  was  not  disposed  to  dissolve  the 
Union  on  account  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  it  had  no  right  to  withhold  its  duties 
under  constitutional  guarantees — a  political  apo 
thegm  we  commend  to  the  South  at  this  time. 
Let  us  now  view  this  question  in  connexion  with 
its  effects  upon  slavery. 

Slaves  have,  for  a  long  time,  been  rising  in 
value,  and  this,  too,  during  the  cry  of  a  want  of 
security,  from  Northern  disregard  of  obligations, 
which  would  secure  it.  Property  so  insecure,  as 
these  alarmists  would  have  us  believe,  would 
hardly  rise  thus  in  value.  Moreover  it  is  the  far 
Southern  States,  where  slaves  are  m'ost  secure,  and 
where  there  can  be  no  complaint  about  the  exe 
cution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  that  clamor  most 
about  disunion,  and  not  the  border  slave  States, 
where,  if  anywhere,  slaves  escape  to  the  free 
States.  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Mis 
souri  are  not  disunion  States,  nor  do  all  the  boasts 
of  fiery  fulsome  fanatics  hold  out  inducements  to 
them  to  become  so.  All  this  hobby  about  the 
security  of  the  "nigger"  is  therefore  but  a  pre 
text,  while  the  possession  of  Government  offices, 


OUR  GRIEVANCES.  183 

and  the  control  of  Government  power  in  behalf 
of  the  slave  interest,  are,  as  we  have  before  sta 
ted,  the  real  motives  to  these  pretended  griev 
ances. 

Oct.  18,  I860. 


XII. 

DISUNION. 

UNDER  the  heading  of  "  our  grievances  "  we 
considered  the  main  grievance  complained  of  by 
the  South,  as  the  cause  of  disunion,  and  in  con 
sidering  further  grievances  we  adopt,  for  our 
present  heading,  the  consequence  threatened,  as 
the  main  object  of  our  attentions. 

Our  last  article  showed  the  aversion,  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  the  North,  to  the  execution 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  to  have  been  provoked 
by  the  aggravations  of  the  South,  in  doing  vio 
lence  to  innocent  persons  from  the  North,  and 
under  an  affectation  of  fear  for  the  security  of 
slaves,  imprisoning,  forcing  off  with  many  indig 
nities,  and  executing  with  mob  violence  her  citi 
zens  ;  refusing  to  allow  the  United  States  Courts 
to  discharge  their  constitutional  duties,  and  cul 
minating  in  falseness  to  her  plighted  faith  by  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Pursuing 


DISUNION.  185 

thus  the  suicidal  course  of  provoking  enemies  to 
wards  an  institution  that  needs,  for  its  perpetuity, 
no  little  zeal  exerted  to  conciliate  friends  for  it.  If 
our  Northern  people  are  implicated  in  any  inter 
ference  with  slavery  in  the  South,  we  raise  no  objec 
tions  to  the  severe  measures  of  repression  the 
Southern  people  may  adopt,  and  this  has  recently 
been  evinced  by  the  uniform  acquiescence,  at  the 
North,  in  the  treatment  adopted  towards  John 
Brown  and  his  party  in  their  Harper's  Ferry  in 
vasion.  False  and  silly  is  the  hue  and  cry  against 
the  whole  North  for  this,  as  was  also  the  assump 
tion  of  Virginia's  pompous  Governor  that  he  pos 
sessed  facts  showing  complicity  therein  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  North. 

Upon  the  rights  of  Congress  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  territories,  we,  of  the  Eepublican  party, 
are  on  the  strong  ground  that  Congress  has 
repeatedly  asserted  and  exercised  this  right,  and 
that,  even  putting  this  exercise  in  abeyance,  as  in 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  to  which  the  South  was 
committed  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise,  and  allowing  the  people  of  the  territories  to 
express  their  unbiased  will,  without  fraud  or  vio 
lence,  we  shall  obtain  practically  our  wishes,  for, 
in  our  enlightened  age,  the  institution  of  slavery 
will  not  be  adopted  as  a  matter  of  choice.  But 


186  DISUNION. 

now,  under-  Southern  demands,  we  must  overturn 
our  time-honored  policy,  to  interpose  by  Congress 
and  establish  slavery  against  the  will  of  the  peo 
ple  in  the  territories,  upon  the  alternative  of  a 
separation,  which,  with  characteristic  blindness, 
must  leave  the  Southern  Confederacy  without  an 
inch  of  territory  to  extend  slavery  over. 

The  tariff  can  no  longer  be  a  Southern  hobby. 
The  policy  of  free  trade,  so  far  as  consistent  with 
tariff  for  such  revenues  as  are  needed  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  Government,  is  our  pretent  prac 
tice  substantially,  and  undoubtedly  our  true 
policy. 

These  bugaboo  screeches,  about  the  calamity  to 
the  country  of  a  Republican  President,  would 
have  us  believe  that  our  President  is  invested  with 
such  absolute  authority,  that  he  can  arbitrarily 
exercise  it,  at  the  behests  of  party,  and  impose 
such  intolerable  oppressions,  that  armed  resistance 
is  the  only  alternative  of  ignoble  submission. 
Surely,  if  this  is  our  state,  we  gained  little  by  our 
revolution  and  separation  from  England,  and  our 
forefathers  made  a  sad  botch  of  our  Constitution, 
in  not  providing  against  these  evils.  But  this  is 
not  so;  our  forefathers  adopted  every  precaution 
that  the  terms  of  language  admit,  and  it  is  our 
painful  reflection  these  terms,  both  in  letter  and 


DISUNION.  187 

in  spirit,  have  had  their  only  violation  in  behalf 
of  the  pro-slavery  interest. 

Some  grounds  of  alarm  might  justly  exist  if  a 
Republican  President  should  usurp  the  unau 
thorized  powers  against  slavery  that  have  been 
assumed  by  the  present  and  preceding  adminis 
tration  in  its  favor,  and  against  which,  and  fur 
ther  subserviency  to  the  South  by  our  sycophantic 
Presidents,  we  are  told  the  North  has  no  right  of 
complaint. 

The  great  and  growing  power  of  executive 
patronage,  already  beyond  the  anticipations  of  the 
founders  of  our  Government,  and  capable  of  sus 
taining  a  corrupt  party  policy,  to  some  extent, 
against  the  wishes  of  the  people,  is  a  subject 
worthy  of  serious  attention  with  a  view  to  mea 
sures  of  restriction.  It  is,  indeed,  against  these 
gross,  base  assumptions  and  abuses  of  executive 
power  that  the  Eepublican  party  has  arisen,  and 
however  provoked  to  retaliation,  we  pledge  our 
party  to  constitutional  and  legal  measures.  And 
these  measures,  let  us  notify  our  Southern 
brethren,  not  by  way  of  threat  but  of  warning, 
we  intend  to  enforce.  As  our  brave  Ohio  Sena 
tor  (Mr.  Wade)  said,  "  we  submitted  to  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  remained  in  the 
Union  in  disgrace,  not  because  we  were  weak  and 


188  DISUNION. 

needed  it  for  support,  but  because  we  were  strong, 
and  could  bear  the  indignity,  under  the  conscious 
ness  of  strength  available,  in  due  time,  to  redress 
our  wrongs,  and  restrain  refractory  members 
from  fanatical  suicide."  We  endured  the  Union, 
under  oppression,  because  of  our  constitutional 
right  of  peaceful  redress,  and  in  doing  so  carry 
with  us  the  power  to  bind  it,  in  which  we  illus 
trate  a  principle  which  it  will  be  our  duty  to 
enforce,  that  in  going  into  an  election  of  Govern 
ment  officers — which  to  our  Government  is  the 
peaceful  way  of  correcting  abuses — we  commit 
ourselves  to  the  moral  obligation  to  abide  the 
result,  and  we  have  no  disposition  to  commit  nor 
to  tolerate  a  falseness  and  treachery  that  will  not. 
From  our  Northern  doughfaces,  who  tell  us  the 
South  must  have  its  way  or  the  Union  is  not  safe, 
we  turn  with  loathing,  and  leave  them  to  the 
ignominious  oblivion  to  which  their  pusillanimity 
reduced  them.  As  well  say  to  the  highwayman, 
"  "We  pay  you  tribute  and  will  shield  you  from 
punishment  if  we  may  pass  on  in  peace;"  or  to 
the  ruffian  who  despoils  our  homes  of  peace  and 
virtue,  "  we  yield  because  we  want  no  difficulty 
with  you."  To  such  we  say — we  desire  not  your 
assistance,  we  fear  not  your  opposition,  bb-  we 
sicken  with  ineffable  shame  and  disgust  that 


DISUNION".  189 

American  mothers  ever  nourished  such  unworthy 
sons. 

Our  conclusion  is,  that  the  North  shall  fulfil  its 
obligations  on  the  one  hand,  and  refuse  a  slavish 
submission  to  extravagant  demands  on  the  other, 
and  that  in  this  the  South  and  the  whole  coun 
try  have  respectively  the  only  grounds  for  safety 
and  prosperity.  The  recent  State  elections  give 
us  the  glorious  promise  that  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be 
our  next  President,  and  we  pledge  him  to  fulfil 
his  constitutional  obligations,  but  to  withhold  the 
executive  powers  from  longer  pandering  to  mor 
bid  appetites  and  disastrous  measures. 

October  20,  1860. 


XIIL 

OUK  POLITICAL  SUMMARY. 

IT  is  a  consideration  of  great  consolation,  and 
one  that,  as  man  improves  in  his  understanding, 
gives  hope  of  an  ultimately  high  destiny  for  him, 
that  in  all  matters  of  faith  and  purpose,  whether 
initiated  by  political  or  religious  associations, 
there  is  an  assumed  integrity  of  motive,  and  a 
decent  respect  is  paid  to  virtue  by  affecting  a  con 
formity  to  her  dictates.  Even  in  the  outrageous 
measures  of  the  pro-slavery  party  in  our  country, 
operating  through  their  servile  tools  of  the  pre 
sent  and  past  administrations  of  the  general 
Government,  to  overturn  the  dictates  of  common 
sense  and  the  experience  of  past  ages,  there  has 
been  the  assumption,  however  bold  and  startling, 
that  slavery  was  the  natural  and  healthful  state  of 
society,  contributing  to  its  refinement  and  eleva 
tion  so  much  that  we  must  accept  it  as  a  social 
and  political  blessing.  Upon  this  basis  when 


OUR  POLITICAL  SUMMARY.  191 

mankind  shall  no  longer  be  subject  to  misrepre 
sentation,  and  diverted  with  specious  delusions 
and  plausible  sophistries,  he  will  set  out  upon  the 
pathway  of  his  highest  prosperity  and  happiness. 
The  progress  of  the  present  campaign  for  the  Pre 
sidency  gives  a  hopeful  indication  of  an  earnest 
search  for  this  pathway,  or  one  at  least  that  may 
save  him  from  the  serious  blunders  committed  in 
following  the  blind  leaders  of  the  Democracy.  It 
is  our  purpose  to  point  out  this  path,  and  encou 
rage  our  fellow-men  to  pursue  it,  and  we  here  recur 
to  the  considerations  that  govern  us,  to  the  end 
that  we  may  confirm  in  it  those  of  the  true  faith, 
and  point  out  the  dangers  of  our  heretical  oppo 
nents  who  depart  from  it. 

Without  alluding  to  the  festering  corruptions 
engendered  by  slavery  in  a  community  which 
tolerates  it,  we  have  opposed  its  extension  into 
our  territories  because  of  its  injurious  effects  upon 
the  free  laborer,  and  consequent  diminution  of  the 
productions  of  labor.  An  appeal  is  made  to  pre 
judice  against  color,  and  to  the  offensive  attitude 
of  the  abolitionists  to  charge  us  with  being  negro 
worshippers,  Black  Kepublicans,  Abolitionists, 
&c.  But  with  a  consistency  characteristic  of  the 
emanations  of  malice,  we  are  told  that  the  slave 
holders  are  the  true  friends  of  the  negro,  and  by 


192  OUR  POLITICAL  SUMMARY 

their  system  they  are  elevating  the  black  race. 
The  Kamschatkaian  would  tell  us  to  give  up  our 
work-oxen,  and  use  dogs  in  their  place,  and  thus 
improve  the  race  of  dogs ;  a  morbid  snaketamer 
would  have  us  adopt  snakes  and  lizards  for 
domestic  pets,  because  we  thus  improve  their 
breed.  To  this  we  answer,  we  are  not  concerned 
with  improving  the  black  race,  nor  the  breed  of 
dogs  and  reptiles,  any.  further  than  such  improve 
ment  may  contribute  to  the  welfare  and  advance 
ment  of  our  own  race — our  cause  is  the  white 
man,  and  not  the  negro  nor  the  lower  animals. 
We  are  told  that  the  welfare  of  the  whites  at  the 
South  is  advanced  by  slave  labor  and  their  wealth 
of  late  increased.  We  admit  that  the  South  has 
shared  the  great  prosperity  of  our  country  for 
years  past,  but  not  a  proportional  prosperity  to 
that  at  the  North.  They  snarl,  "Let  us  alone ;  that 
is  our  concern  not  yours,  and  we  will  acquiesce 
in  all  the  evils  that  slavery  may  entail  upon  us.'' 
Very  well,  we  say,  let  us  alone  too.  You  may 
nurse  a  viper  and  get  stung  by  it,  but  we  protest 
that  you  shall  not  obtrude  your  viper  upon  us, 
against  our  will,  nor  require  us  to  sustain  you 
with  the  substance  it  is  devouring  from  you. 
This  you  have  been  doing  through  the  machinery 
of  government,  but  we  propose  to  modify  the 


OUR  POLITICAL  SUMMARY.  193 

workings  of  this  machine.  But,  says  the  South, 
if  you  won't  let  the  operations  of  the  machine 
inure  to  our  benefit  exclusively,  we  will  stop  it, 
and  turn  upon  you  the  innumerable  and  never- 
ending  plagues  of  our  offended  wrath.  We 
answer  it  is  our  purpose  to  operate  the  machine 
according  to  its  original  construction,  putting  in 
full  play  all  its  component  parts  and  checking 
any  eccentricities  that  might  interrupt  the  har 
mony  and  success  of  its  movements.  This  mis 
sion  we  commit  to  the  Eepublican  party,  and, 
awaiting  their  execution  of  this  trust,  we  set  our 
selves  at  rest  upon  the  final  issue. 

October  27,  1880. 

9 


XIY. 

A.  WORD  TO   THE   BRETHREN. 

To  those  who,  prompted  by  an  integrity  of 
purpose,  possess  the  intelligence  to  determine  and 
resolution  to  pursue  the  proper  objects  of  our  na 
tional  well-being,  we  would  address  a  few  words 
in  confidence  upon  impending  events.  Inspired 
with  a  confidence  in  the  ultimate  prevalence  of 
almighty  truth,  party  ties,  personal  affections,  and 
promises  of  reward  have  not  restrained  the  mani 
festations  of  your  noble  impulses,  nor  have  fruit 
less  labors,  disappointment  and  defeat  dismayed 
and  subdued  you. 

In  the  enjoyment  of  a  conscious  rectitude,  you 
have  a  higher  reward  than  any  wages  of  compli 
ance  with  the  demands  of  the  pro-slavery  Demo 
cracy  can  afford.  Under  these  sentiments  you 
unavoidably  sprang  into  existence  as  a  party, 
upon  the  iniquitous  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  and  the  unscrupulous  measures  of  the 
Pierce  Administration  to  establish  slavery  in 


A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN.  195 

Kansas.  So  strong  were  your  numbers  there  was 
no  doubt  that  the  popular  voice  of  all  or  nearly  all 
the  northern  States  was  on  your  side,  and  but  for 
the  villanous  frauds  of  your  opponents  in  Illinois, 
Indiana,  and  Pennsylvania,  your  presidential  can 
didate  (Mr.  Fremont)  would  have  been  declared 
(as  in  fact  he  was)  duly  elected. 

In  the  meantime,  under  the  Buchanan  dy 
nasty,  you  have  met  a  more  dogged  and  shame 
less  opposition  than  that  of  the  Pierce  Adminis 
tration,  and  though  the  name  of  James  Buchanan 
is  justly  held  in  universal  contempt,  it  is  difficult 
to  see  that  it  has  become  so  other  than  in  his  per 
sistent  subserviency  to  the  pro-slavery  cause. 

In  the  mean  time  your  policy,  both  local,  in 
Kansas,  and  national,  in  Congress,  has  substantial 
ly  triumphed.  You  have  rid  yourselves  of  border- 
ruffian  rule,  and  established  the  freedom  of  Kansas 
and  this  great  commonwealth  of  Republicanism. 
Challenged  to  this  field,  you  have  struggled  against 
the  minions  of  slave  oligarchy  and  the  exe 
cutive  power,  and,  spite  of  privations  and  sa 
crifices,  have  won  a  victory,  which,  in  its  conse 
quences,  may  bear  comparison  with  the  most 
signal  triumphs  in  behalf  of  humanity,  and 
should  enrol  you  upon  the  roll  of  fame  as 
the  greatest  benefactors  of  your  race  and  nation, 


196  A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN. 

and  transmit  to  an  admiring  and  grateful  poste 
rity,  the  record  of  your  heroic  virtues. 

Alike  creditably  to  Gov.  Seward  and  just  to  you, 
did  he,  in  his  Lawrence  speech,  bow  before  you 
in  reverential  acknowledgment  of  greater  services 
done  by  you  to  the  cause  he  had  so  much  at  heart, 
than  by  any  other  people.  In  vain  are  Governors, 
Judges,  and  other  Federal  appointments  made  to 
oppose  you.  However,  prompted  by  hate  of  you, 
and  subserviency  to  the  appointing  power,  they 
dare  no  longer  trifle  with  an  injured  and  ex 
asperated  people.  In  Congress  your  opposition 
to  the  establishment  of  slavery  in  Kansas,  the 
Lecompton  Constitution,  the  addition  of  Cuba  to 
increase  the  pro-slavery  power,  the  opening  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  the  venality  of  government  offi 
cers,  has  had  a  gratifying  triumph  in  the  face  of 
Executive  opposition.  And  though  this  opposi 
tion  defeated  your  beneficent  homestead  measure, 
you  have  forced  upon  your  opponents  in  the 
Senate  an  acceptance  of  its  principles.  So  doubly 
armed  are  you  in  this  just  quarrel,  that  your  ene 
mies,  so  far  from  resisting  you,  are  forced  to  assist 
in  doing  the  drudgery  of  your  campaign.  Your 
principles  therefore,  through  their  own  inherent 
virtues,  have  had  a  practical  triumph,  though  the 
power  and  patronage  of  the  Government  have 


A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN.  197 

been  in  tne  hands  of  your  opponents,  and  used  with 
every  possible  effect  against  you.  You  have  labor 
ed  hard,  but  successfully,  and  if,  by  the  chances 
of  the  coming  election,  the  candidates  of  your 
party  do  not  succeed,  you  can  well  labor  on  and 
wait  to  behold  the  confusion  and  disgrace  of  your 
designing  opponents,  however  vainly  you  must 
regret  the  misfortunes  of  the  ignorant  and  weak  who 
lend  support  to  the  very  hands  that  bind  them. 

Kansas  by  treachery,  fraud,  and  violence,  had 
been  opened  to  slavery  ;  you  sprang  to  save  her, 
to  save  yourselves  and  the  north  from  the  dis 
grace  of  a  craven  spirit,  that  would  allow  the  soil 
of  Kansas,  once  consecrated  to  freedom  by  a  sa 
cred  compact,  to  be  tamely  submitted  to  the  cold 
embraces  of  the  taskmasters  of  slavery.  Bleak 
were  her  then  wintry  plains,  repulsive,  savage,  and 
murderous  the  ruffians  with  whom  you  had  to 
contend,  and  portentous  the  frowning,  opposing 
power  of  government ;  but  you  hesitated  not  at 
them — sufferings,  sacrifices,  and  defeats  could  not 
deter  you  from  your  purpose.  You  turned  in 
distress  to  those  you  supposed  your  natural  allies 
and  friends  in  the  States.  Your  vain  cry  was  met 
with  rebuke,  that  your  opposition  to  the  arrogant 
demands  of  the  South  must  break  up  the  Union, 
as  submission  is  the  only  way  to  preserve  it ; 


198  A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN. 

and  denunciations,  as  fanatical  "  Kansas  Shriek 
ers,"  were  the  response  to  your  appeal  from  those 
constitutional  cowards,  in  whose  behalf  you  were 
fighting,  and  who  crown  their  baseness  by  as 
sisting  to  foist  upon  you  a  new  and  still  more 
oppressive  administration  of  the  government. 

You  struggled  on  with  a  zeal  proportioned  to 
the  increasing  opposition,  and  you  have  nobly 
triumphed.  It  is  impossible  you  can  again  be 
placed  under  so  many  adverse  circumstances,  and 
the  present  indications  are,  that  a  returning  sanity 
of  our  people  will  soon  show  a  due  appreciation 
of  your  position,  and  do  you  justice.  If  not,  be 
not  discouraged ;  as  we  have  shown,  your  candi 
dates  may  not  get  office  and  power,  but  your 
principles  will  have  a  practical  success  with  the 
people,  and  your  opponents  will  be  placed  in  awk 
ward  confusion  with  their  own  blindness  and  folly, 

"  Then  bear  on,  though  thy  repining  eye 
See  worthless  men  exalted  high, 
And  modest  merit  sink  forlorn 
In  cold  neglect  and  cruel  scorn. 
If  disappointment  fills  the  cup, 
Undaunted  nobly  drink  it  up ; 
Truth  will  prevail  and  justice  show 
Ifer  tardy  honors,  sure,  but  slow  : 

Bear  on,  bear  bravely  on.' 


A  WORD  TO  THE  BRETHREN.  199 

This  you  will  do,  and  if  only  to  encounter  "here 
after  reverses  and  opposition,  you  will  know  well 
how  to  deal  with  them,  and  find  a  satisfactory 
reward  in  the  conscious  rectitude  of  your  con 
duct. 

You  are  told,  if  Lincoln  is  elected,  you  have  to 
encounter  a  catalogue  of  woes,  from  the  disunion 
of  the  South  from  the  North  and  a  bloody  civil 
war.  You  are  not  to  be  frightened  by  what  must 
be  regarded  as  an  idle  threat,  nor  will  you  be 
unprepared  if  it  should  not  prove  idle.  Your 
Kansas  struggle  will  prove  to  have  been  a  good 
school,  and  the  result  of  it  an  ominous  indication 
of  what  may  be  expected  in  an  issue,  where  so 
many  circumstances,  heretofore  in  favor  of  the 
South,  must  now  be  turned  against  her. 

This,  the  last  number  of  our  paper  before  the 
election,  and,  as  we  hope,  triumph  of  our  party  in 
the  nation,  makes  these  considerations  appropriate 
to  this  occasion,  and,  in  submitting  them,  we  join 
with  our  illustrious  patron  of  the  cause  of  freedom 
in  Kansas,  and  "bow  in  profound  reverence  before 
you,  as  we  have  never  done  to  any  other  people 
- — we  salute  you  with  gratitude  and  affection." 

November  3, 1860. 


XV. 

REPUBLICAN  REFLECTIONS. 

THE  object  of  government  is  security  against 
wrong,  whether  arising  from  our  private  or  pub 
lic  relationship.  It  is  the  duty  of  government 
to  guarantee  to  all  its  subjects  protection  from 
injustice  and  fraud,  and  at  the  same  time  redress 
the  grievances  of  society,  and  punish  the  aggres 
sions  of  lawless  violence. 

When  a  government  fails  either  from  impotence 
or  want  of  inclination  to  secure  the  rights  and 
meet  the  equitable  demands  of  society,  it  ceases 
to  command  the  respect,  veneration,  and  adher 
ence  of  all  freemen. 

In  a  society  favored  with  the  wide  diffusion  of 
general  information,  the  increased  facilities  of 
commercial  and  social  intercourse,  and  the  ameli 
orating  influences  of  free  institutions,  the  necessity 
of  a  powerful  government  and  strict  surveillance 
is  obviated.  A  prompt  and  ready  execution  of 


REPUBLICAN  REFLECTIONS.  201 

the  laws,  and  vindication  of  justice  is  neverthe 
less  an  evidence  of  a  just  and  efficient  govern 
ment,  and  promotive  of  the  happiness  and  wel- 
being  of  mankind. 

The  policy  pursued  by  the  last  two  administra 
tions  towards  this  Territory  will  brand  them  in 
the  eyes  of  a  discriminating  nation  as  weak,  hy 
pocritical,  and  false,  while  the  impartial  word  of 
history  will  stamp  them  with  its  black  broad  seal 
of  reprobation  and  condemnation. 

The  history  of  Kansas  will  remain  a  foul  blot 
on  the  annals  of  liberty,  and  condemn  to  ever 
lasting  infamy  the  vile  hordes  of  pro-slavery  ruf 
fians  who,  in  1855,  with  armed  violence,  and  im 
pending  force,  polluted  the  virgin  soil  of  this, 
Freedom's  fair  heritage,  invaded  the  polls,  and 
struck  down  the  rights  and  liberties  of  freeborn 
Americans,  and  sought  to  establish  and  perpetuate 
a  reign  of  tyranny,  oppression,  and  wrong  ;  while 
the  administrations  of  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  if 
they  did  not  aid  and  abet,  at  least  connived  at 
these  demonstrations  of  lawless  violence,  will  ex 
cite  in  the  bosoms  of  all  law-abiding  men  a  per 
petual  loathing  and  disgust. 

The  leading  object  of  the  Pierce  and  Bucha 
nan  dynasties  has  been  to  establish  the  institution 
of  slavery  on  a  broad,  national,  and  permanent 


202  REPUBLICAN  REFLECTIONS. 

basis,  and  secure  and  perpetuate  tbe  ascendency  in 
the  Federal  government,  of  an  element  of  power, 
which,  like  a  rapacious  oligarchy,  is  sapping  the 
foundations  and  absorbing  the  liberties  of  the  la 
boring  classes. 

Those  peculiar  leading  measures  of  the  Pierce 
administration,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise,  and  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill,  the  authorship  of  which  Mr.  Douglas  makes 
his  boast,  and  which  have  yielded  him  the  greater 
portion  of  his  fame,  and  which  will  mark  him  in 
the  eyes  of  posterity  as  a  political  intriguer,  reveal, 
when  viewed  in  the  light  of  collateral  facts  and 
circumstances,  a  broad  conspiracy,  and  deep-laid 
plot  to  betray,  in  all  the  territories,  the  constitu 
tional  rights  of  freedom. 

Excluding  altogether  from  our  consideration 
the  public  avowals  of  leading  Southern  statesmen, 
who  have  controlled  the  Government  during  the 
last  eight  years,  and  interpreting  the  spirit  and 
design  of  the  Federal  administration  through  the 
policy  which  it  has  persistently  and  assiduously 
pursued  towards  its  pioneer  citizens,  we  are  led 
inevitably  to  this  conclnsion. 

How  else  can  we  explain  the  manifest  distaste 
and  strenuous  opposition  of  the  administration, 
in  1856,  to  a  public  investigation  of  the  outrages 


REPUBLICAN  REFLECTIONS.  203 

perpetrated  in  Kansas  ?  The  greedy  haste  with 
which  a  pro-slavery  and  obnoxious  constitution 
was  sought  to  be  forced  on  a  protesting  and  in 
dignant  people,  and  the  repeated  refusal  by  a 
Democratic  senate  to  admit  Kansas  with  a  consti 
tution,  the  embodiment  of  her  enlightened  choice, 
and  which,  harmonizing  with  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  guarantees  freedom  to  all  ? 

These  acts  have  been  scrutinized  by  the  eye  of 
a  discriminating  nation ;  and  the  spirit  of  a  fear 
ful  retribution  has  swept  over  the  party  under 
whose  protecting  shadow  the  reign  of  tyranny 
and  violence  in  Kansas  has  been  continued,  and 
torn,  and  rent,  and  wrecked  and  precipitated  it  to 
ruin,  while  liberty  in  her  mild  glory  and  serene 
radiance  prepares  to  mount  the  throne  of  the  na 
tion.  There  may  she  live,  and  reign,  and  sway 
this  vast  Empire  till  the  world  shall  end,  and 
time's  last  note  be  heard  sounding  upon  the 
trumpet  of  eternal  doom. 

Nov.  10,  I860. 


XYL 

OUR  TRIUMPH. 

THANKS  to  the  success  of  Kepublicanism  in 
Kansas,  we  have  telegraphs  and  presses  to  which 
we  have  been  indebted  for  the  early  intelligence 
of  the  results  of  the  election,  which  reached  us, 
at  this  point,  about  forty-eight  hours  from  the 
closing  of  the  polls  on  election  day. 

Our  last  week's  issue  announced  the  happy 
tidings  to  our  rejoicing  readers,  that  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  and  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN  were,  on  the 
6th  inst.,  elected  to  the  respective  positions  of 
President  and  Yice -President  of  these  United 
States,  to  which  they  had  been  nominated  by  the 
Kepublican  party  in  Convention  at  Chicago. 

An  undeviating  purpose — obstinate  as  it  was 
cruel — to  subvert  the  framework  of  our  national 
policy,  and  substitute  therefor  a  gloomy  pile,  upon 
which,  and  tottering  beneath  its  load,  the  hopes 
of  humanity  and  the  happiness  of  our  people 


OUR  TRIUMPH.  205 

were  to  be  sacrificed  as  a  holocaust  to  slavery,  has 
been  resolutely  pursued,  for  the  last  six  years  on 
the  part  of  the  advocates  of  slavery.  Arrogant 
and  domineering  in  spirit,  and,  through  the  pow 
ers  of  the  general  government,  oppressive  in  man 
ners  towards  the  people  of  the  North,  they 
claimed  the  right  of  rule,  to  which  cowardly  com 
merce  and  timeserving  office-seeking  politicians 
lent  themselves,  and  to  perpetuate  this  rule,  every 
resort  that  art  could  devise,  and  fraud  and  force 
effect,  has  been  adopted  to  this  end.  Oppressed 
through  these  long  years  of  lonely  darkness,  the 
cohorts  of  freedom  have  struggled  on  to  reach,  at 
last,  the  daylight  of  deliverance  which  now  dawns 
upon  them.  Thank  you  from  the  depth  of  our 
heart,  beloved  brethren  of  the  North.  We  bow  at 
your  feet  in  humble  acknowledgment  of  our  gra 
titude  due  you  for  asserting  your  own  and  our 
manhood,  unswayed  by  bribes,  unintimidated  by 
threats. 

We  now  rise  to  our  proper  level,  and  in  catch 
ing  the  first  rays  of  light  and  breath  of  deliverance, 
our  impulse  is  one  of  unbounded  joy,  and  we 
have  hardly  been  able  to  do  else  than  indulge 
our  feelings  and  manifestations  of  delight. 

But  we  must  reflect  that,  as  we  take  our  new 
position,  we  are  involved  in  new  duties  and  re- 


206  OUR  TRIUMPH. 

sponsibilities,  and  it  becomes  us,  thus  early,  to 
reflect  upon  the  proper  discharge  of  them,  to 
the  end  that  we  may  justify  our  promises  and  the 
hopes  of  our  race,  and  avoid  the  errors  and  follies 
which  have  swept  the  Democracy  from  existence, 
and  made  the  name  of  it,  as  identified  with  the 
corrupt  Buchanan,  the  seceding  Breckenridge,  and 
the  compact-violating  Douglas,  a  byword  for  all 
that  is  deceitful  and  unjust. 

OUR  POLICY. 

Our  policy  should  therefore  be,  to  administer 
this  government  with  equal  justice  and  honor  to 
all  parties  of  the  country,  and  not  necessarily, 
as  has  been  done  for  many  years,  in  behalf  of  a 
class  whose  impudence  and  presumption  corres 
pond  to  their  idleness,  incapacity,  and  poverty, 
and  who,  upon  the  capital  of  a  few  "  niggers  "  at 
their  command,  claim  all  refinement  and  gentility 
of  society,  and  a  monopoly  of  the  lucrative  offices 
under  the  government.  Pampered  and  spoiled 
by  these  indulgences,  it  is  this  class  that  has 
brought  us  our  present  troubles,  to  remedy  which 
the  Republican  party  has  arisen ;  and  of  course 
it  follows,  that  to  continue  the  same  policy  would 
defeat  the  purposes  of  the  party,  and  still  further 
exasperate  the  evils  we  seek  to  cure.  What  most 


OUR  TRIUMPH.  207 

we  have  wanted  is  a  president  who  would  do 
justice  to  the  North,  without  being  swayed  by  a 
senseless  and  false  clamor  that,  by  so  doing,  he 
would  fail  of  justice  to  the  South.  So  sensitive 
would  some  of  our  conciliatory  presidents  have 
been,  that  to  avoid  the  charge  of  being  partial  to 
the  North,  they  would  have  neglected  to  do  it 
justice,  in  order  to  pacify  the  exacting  and  capri 
cious  South.  This  was  the  apprehension  concern 
ing  Mr.  Seward,  and  this  feature  of  his  character 
had  much  to  do  towards  the  defeat  of  his  nomi 
nation.  Nor  would  we  indulge  in  any  spirit  of 
retaliation  towards  the  South,  in  revenge  for  the 
gross  injustice  we  have  suffered  at  her  hands. 
Our  new  President,  we  are  confident,  understands 
his  mission  in  these  respects. 

He  should  administer  the  Government  himself, 
in  accordance  with  the  theory  of  our  Government, 
and  call  the  heads  of  the  respective  departments 
to  their  positions,  to  assist  him,  not  govern  him, 
correcting  in  this  respect  the  awkward  position 
of  Mr.  Buchanan,  in  which  the  heads  of  the  dif 
ferent  departments  exercise  their  functions,  and 
give  orders  in  their  own  name,  irrespective  of  the 
President,  as  though  an  independent  power, 
therein,  existed  in  them. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  sends  in  his 


208  OUR  TRIUMPH. 

report,  and  urges  upon  Congress  a  tariff  policy 
the  very  reverse  of  that  recommended  by  the 
President.  We  fancy  Secretary  Cobb  would  have 
cut  a  sorry  figure,  as  a  cabinet  minister  of  General 
Jackson,  in  opposing  his  views  of  state  policy. 

Mr.  Secretary  Floyd  indicates,  irrespective  of 
any  known  views  of  the  President,  that  the  mat 
ter  of  Disunion  is  in  his  hands,  and  that  he  is 
uncertain  what  is  his  duty,  and  how  far  he  shall 
use  the  force  of  the  army  to  prevent  secession  of 
Southern  states,  just  as  though  this  was  exclu 
sively  his  office,  and  not  that  of  the  President. 
Mr.  President  Lincoln,  the  power  is  yours  alone — 
use  it ;  the  responsibility  yours — discharge  it ; 
and  the  reward  due,  either  of  praise  or  blame, 
shall  be  yours.  Do  not,  Buchanan-like,  timid 
ly  shift  upon  your  irresponsible  secretaries  a 
responsibility  which  devolves  upon  you  alone. 

SLAVERY. 

Not  to  be  disturbed  where  it  now  exists,  nor  to 
be  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia  without 
the  wishes  of  the  people,  and  then  by  moderate 
degrees. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  to  be  enforced  in  good 
faith  ;  the  present  law  should  not  be  changed  to 
impair  its  efficiency  in  it. 


OUR  TRIUMPH.  209 

Slavery  is  not  extended  by  our  Constitution 
over  the  territories.  On  the  contrary,  they  are 
free  in  the  absence  of  law  establishing  slavery, 
and  no  such  law  should  be  made  till  a  territory 
becomes  a  state,  when  she  can,  if  it  be  the 
unbiased  will  of  her  people — that  will  being 
expressed  without  force  or  fraud — provide  for 
slavery,  and  should  not  be  refused  admission  to 
the  Union  on  this  account.  Such  we  believe  to 
be  our  true  policy,  and,  so  far  as  we  understand, 
the  views  of  our  President  elect 

DISUNION, 

however,  threatens  to  become  a  great  question  for 
the  solution  of  our  new  President  and  his  party. 

If  a  state  avails  herself  of  the  advantages 
of  the  Union,  she  should  share  the  responsibilities 
of  it.  She  grows  in  prosperity  under  the  asgis  of 
our  laws  and  our  protection  ;  shall  she  escape  her 
share  of  our  adversities,  arising  from  war  or  debts 
unavoidably  incurred  ?  Upon  every  principle  of 
moral  obligation,  no  state  can  of  right  withdraw 
from  the  Union,  without  the  consent  of  the  others, 
but  by  revolution. 

We  prefer  discreet  measures  of  restraint  and 
coercion  on  such  an  occasion ;  but  we  doubt  the 
probability  of  any  necessity  for  them. 


XYL 

PKOPOSED    AMENDMENTS  TO  THE    CONSTITUTION. 

IN  his  late  message  to  Congress,  the  President, 
after  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  present 
threatening  aspect  of  affairs  in  the  southern  states, 
and  the  absence  in  Congress  of  the  constitutional 
power  to  compel  the  continued  allegiance  of  the 
states  to  the  General  Government,  proposes  to 
pacify  the  slave  states,  and  perpetuate  the  Union 
by  a  fresh  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  slavery.  Mr. 
Buchanan  would  have  the  North  bow  its  knee, 
and  worship  again  the  imperious  God  of  negro 
slavery.  He  would  have  another  exhibition  of 
craven  submission  to  the  exacting  demands  of 
ruthless  oppression  and  despotic  violence. 

The  sway,  and  almost  absolute  control  by  the 
South  of  the  Federal  Government,  has  been 
broken,  and  because  two  or  three  little  states  fret, 
and  fume,  and  kick  like  spoiled  children,  Mr. 
Buchanan  is  alarmed.  "  The  grandest  temple 


PROPOSED  AMENDMENTS,  <fec.  211 

which  lias  ever  been  dedicated  to  human  freedom 
—which  has  been  consecrated  by  the  blood  of 
our  fathers,  by  the  glories  of  the  past  and  the 
hopes  of  the  future — is  about  being  destroyed 
and  the  nation  enshrouded  in  a  long  night  of 
leaden  despotism."  "  The  hopes  of  the  friends 
of  freedom  throughout  the  world  are  to  suffer 
annihilation,  while  our  example  will  be  quoted  as 
a  proof  of  the  failure  of  the  theory  of  self- 
government."  To  all  these  threatening  and 
alarming  calamities  Mr.  Buchanan  has  discovered 
a  remedy.  He  would  convert  this,  the  grandest 
temple  of  human  freedom,  to  a  huge  charnel- 
house  of  human  bondage.  He  would  meet  and 
sustain  the  hopes  of  the  friends  of  freedom,  by 
fastening  more  securely  on  the  nation  the  grow 
ing  curse  of  oppression.  He  proposes  to  demon 
strate  the  practicability  of  self-government  by 
dooming  an  unoffensive  race  to  hopeless,  unend 
ing  slavery,  and  reducing  the  majority  of  a  free 
nation  to  a  meek,  tame,  and  unqualifying  submis 
sion  to  the  iniquitous  exactions  of  an  imperious 
oligarchy. 

Mr.  Buchanan  uniting  in  himself  more  sagacity 
and  patriotism  than  was  possessed  by  the  whole 
band  of  our  Revolutionary  sires,  has  detected  a 
radical  defect  in  the  Constitution,  a  breach  in  the 


212  PROPOSED  AMENDMENTS,  &c. 

fundamental  law  of  the  nation,  which  he  proposes 
to  patch  over  with  slavery.  Slavery  is  discovered 
to  be  the  cohesive  force  which  will  bind  these 
States  in  fraternal  union,  while  the  irrepressible 
conflict  must  cease,  since  freedom  is  to  be  pushed 
out,  and  slavery  shoved  in. 

We  are  to  have  a,  final  settlement  of  this  ques 
tion,  by  a  new  construction  of  the  Constitution, 
giving  an  "  express  recognition  of  the  right  of  pro 
perty  in  slaves  in  the  States  where  it  now  exists, 
or  may  hereafter  exist."  Also  "  the  duty  of  pro 
tecting  this  right  in  all  the  common  territory 
throughout  their  territorial  existence,  and  until 
they  shall  be  admitted  as  States  into  the  Union, 
with  or  without  slavery  as  their  Constitution  may 
prescribe ;  together  with  a  like  recognition  of  the 
rights  of  the  master  to  his  slave,  who  has  escaped 
from  one  state  to  another,  to  be  restored  and 
delivered  up  to  him,  and  the  validity  of  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Law,  enacted  for  that  purpose,  accom 
panied  with  declaration  that  all  state  laws  impair 
ing  or  decreasing  this  right  are  violations  of  the 
Constitution,  and  consequently  null." 

It  might  be  pertinent  to  suggest  to  our  venera 
ble  President,  that  there  have  been  several  final 
settlements  of  this  vexed  question  already.  The 
Jeffersonian  Ordinance  of  1784  was  intended  to 


TO  THE  CONSTITUTION.  213 

be  final,  and  while  it  received  at  the  time  the 
entire  support  of  the  South  the  North  was  satis 
fied.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was  the  next 
final  settlement;  but  this  not  meeting  the  entire 
demands  of  the  South,  Congress,  in  1852,  to 
allay  agitation,  and  save  the  Union,  enacted  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The  fourth  final  settlement 
was  commenced  by  Mr.  Douglas,  and  the  Popu 
lar  Sovereignty  dodge  was  to  banish  slavery 
agitation  from  the  Halls  of  Congress.  The  lame 
ness  of  this  settlement  having  been  made  appa 
rent  on  a  short  trial,  the  Supreme  Court  steps  in 
and  makes  a  final  disposition  of  the  whole  matter. 
We  can  but  commend  the  sagacity  of  the  hero 
of  this  new  final  settlement.  Mr.  Buchanan's 
proposition  covers  the  whole  ground;  he  would 
even  anticipate  the  future  wants  of  the  slave 
power.  "All  the  South  has  ever  contended  for, 
is  to  be  let  alone  and  permitted  to  manage  their 
domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way  as  sovereign 
states."  Then  why,  Mr.  Buchanan,  botch  the 
noble  character  of  our  liberties  with  the  foul  fea 
tures  of  slavery  ? 

December  1,  1860. 


LETTER  I. 

CAMP,  NEAB  MOUND  CITY,  KANSAS,  December  16, 1860. 

You  may  wonder  that  I  have  not  earlier  ful 
filled  my  promise  to  write  you  upon  the  troubles 
in  this  region  of  country,  but  were  you  to  listen, 
as  I  have  done,  to  the  numerously  conflicting 
statements,  of  great  and  equal  credibility,  on  the 
respective  sides,  you  would  find  all  the  delay  I 
have  observed  necessary  to  an  approximate  appre 
ciation  of  the  facts  and  merits  involved  in  pend 
ing  issues.  I  say  approximate,  for  I  do  not  be 
lieve  any  stranger  to  the  past  scenes  and  the 
relations  involved  can  ever  understand  them  in 
their  true  features.  I  had  not  been  here  an  hour 
when  all  the  occurrences  were  made  known  to  me 
about  as  well  as  they  are  now,  but  on  inquiring 
for  the  reasons  of  them  I  was  answered,  by  a  gen 
tleman  of  apparently  just  views,  that  this  was  a 
complex  matter,  and  doubtless  had  some,  though 
not  direct,  foundation  in  the  embittered  animosi 
ties  engendered  four  years  ago,  when,  in  imitation 


LETTER  I.  215 

of,  and  consequent  upon  the  national  breach  of 
good  faith,  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise,  every  breach  of  human  right  and  moral 
obligation  was  committed  to  force  slavery  upon 
Kansas. 

The  occurrences  which  have  occupied  so  much 
public  attention  consist,  mainly,  of  the  execution 
(by  hanging)  of  two  men,  Hinds  and  Scott,  and  the 
shooting  of  two  others, — Moore  and  Bishop. 
Hinds  lived  near  the  state  line  on  the  Big  Osage 
(or  Marais  Des  Cygnes),  and  was  charged  with 
kidnapping  negroes,  one  of  whom  was  a  free  man, 
and  carrying  them  over  into  Missouri  and  selling 
them  as  slaves,  and  with  having  shot  at  Dr.  Jen- 
nison  of  this  town,  with  intent  to  kill — the  Dr. 
having  been  fired  at  twice  on  his  way  home  at 
night,  by  some  one  concealed  by  the  roadside. 
Scott  lived  some  fifteen  miles  north  of  here  near 
the  mouth  of  Mound  Creek,  which  empties  into 
the  Big  Osage,  and  was  charged  with  having 
largely  participated  in  the  outrages  of  1856,  and 
though  repeatedly  notified  to  quit  the  country,  he 
had  not  done  so.  Goods  taken  by  him  from  free- 
state  men  in  1856,  were  said  to  have  been  found 
in  his  house,  when  he  was  hung.  Moore  was 
shot  upon  refusing  to  give  himself  up,  for  having 
been  a  leader,  and  boasting  of  it,  in  the  hanging, 


216  LETTER  I. 

some  time  .ago,  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hugh 
Carlin.  Bishop  was  shot  accidentally  in  the  at 
tempt  to  arrest  Deeds,  whose  son-in-law  he  was, 
and  at  whose  house  he  was  staying.  These  exe 
cutions  have  not  been  committed  by  a  mob,  exas 
perated  by  a  sudden  passion  of  revenge  for  some 
recent  outrage,  but  by  a  committee  of  nine  or 
twelve  persons  appointed  for  this  purpose,  and  to 
execute  the  decree  of  the  people,  who  have  doubt 
less  organized  as  a  secret  order,  and  hold  their 
secret  conclaves  to  determine  the  destinies  of  their 
fellow-men,  and  the  welfare  of  society.  If  these 
things  are  done  for  the  interests  of  the  community 
and  under  its  sanction,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
the  same  measures  of  redress  could  be  effected  by 
law,  and  through  the  forms  of  law,  which  is  un 
derstood  to  be  the  most  solemn  and  mature  expres 
sion  of  a  whole  people  upon  this  best  system  of 
civil  polity,  and  as  such  should  become  the  rule 
of  action  to  every  individual,  and  only  through 
its  effective  operation  can  the  rights  of  all  be 
secured,  and  peace,  harmony,  and  prosperity  pre 
vail.  Violence  may  originate  with  the  many, 
under  spontaneous  and  pure  impulses,  but  will  be 
maintained  only  by  a  few  depraved  natures,  who 
delight  in  the  indulgence  and  manifestation  of 
their  passions,  the  unchecked  effects  of  which 


LETTER  I.  217 

must  be,  terror  and  slavish  fear  on  the  one  hand, 
and  arrogance  and  indiscretion  on  the  other — 
breaking  up  that  industry  from  which  virtue  and 
prosperity  arise,  engendering  bitter  animosities  and 
brutal  resentments,  depriving  the  community, 
through  fear  and  violence,  of  its  best  citizens,  till 
wantonness  and  rage  bear  sway,  and  unlicensed 
outrage  exhausts  herself  in  anarchy  and  ruin.  The 
people  here  are  so  far  under  the  censorship  of  this 
order,  that  they  dare  not  openly  differ  with  it — 
torments  of  the  inquisition,  the  terror  of  the  guil 
lotine,  the  unrelenting  rigor  of  a  Cotton  Mather, 
stand  sentinels  before  their  lips.  The  intolerance 
of  the  people  in  the  Southern  states  towards 
those  who  favor  freedom  is  here  practised,  to  some 
extent,  towards  those  who  favor  slavery,  and  is 
excused  on  the  ground  of  this  example,  and  that 
having  suffered  so  much  from  pro-slavery  men  it 
is  unsafe  to  tolerate  sympathizers  with  them. 

But  it  is  not  altogether  a  question  of  extending 
or  preventing  the  extension  of  slavery,  but,  to 
some  extent,  of  abolishing  it  where  it  exists,  and 
opposing  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  Few  if  any  could  be  found  here  willing  to 
aid  in  the  return  of  a  fugitive  slave,  and  many 
of  the  secret  order  (of  Montgomery  and  Jennison) 
would  violently  resist.  It  appears  our  arrival  here 
10 


218  LITTER  I. 

drove  off  several  blacks,  who,  in  escaping  from 
their  masters  and  coming  here,  had  remained 
under  assurance  of  protection  from  recapture,  but 
which  protection  would  doubtless  prove  unavail 
ing  in  the  presence  of  troops.  Strait-laced,  hide 
bound  puritanism,  which  finds  an  exclusive  and 
infallible  guide  in  Scripture  teachings,  here  dic 
tates  these  things  irrespective  of  the  fact  that  the 
same  supple  authority,  under  Southern  interpre 
tation,  requires  as  a  condition  of  man's  salvation, 
that  he  shall  either  become  a  master  and  own  a  slave, 
or  else  he  shall  have  a  master,  and  become  a  slave. 
But  you  will  notice  I  am  criticising  what  are  for 
the  most  part  local  prejudices  and  peculiarities, 
with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do,  nor  has  the 
General  Government.  A  violent  death  here  and 
there  is  no  concern  of  the  General  Government, 
except  when  perpetrated  in  violation  of  her  laws  ; 
but  the  deaths  here,  were  in  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  territory,  and  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  the  United  States  laws,  nor  has  the  General 
Government  any  business  in  the  matter,  till  the 
Governor  reports  that  he  is  unable  to  preserve 
peace,  and  makes  requisition  for  assistance.  This 
the  governor  has  not  done,  nor  has  he  been  con 
sulted  in  the  matter.  Judge  Williams — the  Judge 
of  this  district — did  indeed  run  away  in  a  fright, 


LETTER  I.  219 

and  despatch  a  frightful  account,  which  having 
been  found  to  be  almost  entirely  false,  it  is  doubt 
less  the  business  of  the  Government  to  withdraw, 
and  leave  local  troubles  to  an  adjustment  by  the 
people  concerned.  Judge  Williams  was  not  dis 
turbed  nor  threatened,  nor  were  any  of  the  land 
officers  at  Fort  Scott,  nor  were  public  records  dis 
turbed.  Neither  was  Missouri  invaded  nor  threat 
ened  ;  nor  were  troops  collected  and  fortifications 
raised  under  Montgomery,  with  a  view  to  revo 
lutionary  measures.  Montgomery  seems  to  hold 
much  influence  here  and  has  firm  adherents  and 
friends,  and  though  doubtless  privy  to  what  is 
here  transpiring,  his  participation  in  the  late  exe 
cutions  is  uniformly  denied  by  the  people  here. 

Gen.  Harney,  with  Artillery  and  Dragoons  to 
•  the  number  of  some  150,  left  Ft.  Leaven  worth  on 
the  27th  ult,  and  proceeded  to  Fort  Scott,  and  we 
were  stopped  here,  where  we  arrived  on  the  5th 
inst.  After  using  the  troops  to  assist  in  making 
some  arrests  at  Fort  Scott,  the  Artillery,  under 
Capt.  Barry,  joined  us  here  on  the  6th,  and  the 
Deputy  U.  S.  Marshal — a  Mr.  Campbell  of  Fort 
Scott — was  supported  in  attemps  to  make  arrests 
here.  Montgomery,  Jennison,  Seaman,  and  the 
two  Forbeses  were  sought  for  at  their  houses,  for 
the  purpose  of  arresting  them,  but  they  were  not 


220  LETTER  I. 

found.  The  Artillery  were  sent  back  to  Fort 
Lea ven worth  on  the  9th,  the  Dragoons  to  Fort 
Scott  on  the  10th,  and  go  into  quarters  there. 
Gen.  Harney  left  Fort  Scott  on  the  llth  for 
Leavenworth,  and  we — two  Companies  2d  Infan 
try — remain  here  in  tents,  with  alternate  cold, 
snow  (six  inches  depth  of  which  fell  last  Thursday 
night)  and  drizzling  chilly  rains,  with  mud,  su 
perlative  wretchedness,  and  disgust  ineffable.  All 
this  is  with  a  view  to  help  the  Marshal  to  make 
arrests,  and  if  Montgomery  and  Jennison  do  not 
give  themselves  up,  we  have  no  idea  how  long  we 
may  have  to  remain.  It  appears  that  they  are 
willing  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  sheriff  of  the 
county,  to  be  tried  for  offences' against  the  laws  of 
the  territory,  and  in  the  usual  way,  but  are  not 
willing  to  be  sent  over  to  Fort  Scott,  and  kept  in* 
jail  there,  to  be  tried  there  before  Judge  Williams, 
sitting  upon  cases  of  the  United  States,  with  such 
authority  to  the  Marshal  for  empannelling  a  jury, 
as  will  include  too  many  Missourians  to  do  justice 
to  a  Kansas  Free  State  man. 

The  present  state  of  affairs  cannot  be  justified. 
Much  may  be  plausibly  urged  as  a  provocation. 
A  suspension,  at  last,  of  border  invasion  and 
Federal  oppression,  through  corrupt  officials,  had 
been  followed  by  a  dearth  and  famine,  in  the 


LETTER  I.  221 

midst  of  which,  the  President  caused  their  lands 
to  be  offered  at  public  sale,  forcing  the  settler  to 
pay  for  his  land,  to  secure  it  against  the  risk  of 
loss.  A  suspension,  in  one  instance,  for  one  year, 
was  allowed,  I  am  informed,  by  permitting  a  re 
filing,  and  paying  again  to  the  Land  Offices  a 
filing  fee.  It  seems  to  me  a  pertinent  inquiry, 
how,  if  the  President  felt  it  his  duty  to  direct  the 
sale,  was  it  not  possible  to  evade  this  duty  by  per 
mitting  a  re-filing,  and  why,  if  not  necessary  to 
have  them  sold,  were  they  so  ordered,  and  this 
order  suspended  to  give  double  fees  to  the  Land 
Officers  ?  Upon  the  survey  of  the  Miami  lands, 
many  persons  unexpectedly  found  themselves 
upon  them,  and  though  the  Indians  had  power  to 
sell,  and  were  anxious  to  sell,  the  President  would 
not  permit  it,  and  these  people  were  expelled  and 
their  improvements  lost. 

The  New  York  Indian  lands  were  open  to 
settlement,  the  Indians  having  their  head  rights, 
and  had  been  surveyed,  so  that,  seemingly,  no 
trouble  could  arise  from  settling  upon  them ;  but 
in  running  off  the  Cherokee  neutral  lands  they 
were  recently  run  on  the  New  York  Indian 
Lands  eight  miles,  putting  the  occupants  of  this 
strip  of  eight  miles  wide,  on  to  the  Cherokee  lands, 
and  from  which  they  were  recently  driven,  in  the 


222  LETTER  I. 

midst  of  distress,  and  their  buildings  burned. 
Captain  Sturgis's  First  Cavalry  obtained,  as  you 
will  remember,  some  notoriety  through  the  pub 
lic  press  in  connection  with  this  matter.  Long 
accustomed  to  regard  the  troops  as  their  allies  in 
the  pro-slavery  cause,  the  Missourians  became 
heroic  under  their  auspices,  and  on  this  occasion 
they  waxed  furiously  valiant,  and  organized,  I 
am  informed,  a  secret  order,  called  the  "Dark- 
Lantern  Order,"  with  a  view  to  renew  invasions 
in  Kansas,  and  reconnoitred  with  boldness  and 
insolence  through  this  region,  with  a  view  to 
future  operations.  Just  now,  and  like  an  opposing 
and  overpowering  wave,  came  in  these  victims  of 
oppression  from  the  Miami  lands  and  New  York 
Indian  lands,  joined  in  spirit  of  exasperation,  if 
not  swelled  in  numbers  by  the  settlers  suffering 
from  the  land  sales,  and  considerably  augmented 
both  in  spirit  and  numbers  by  the  fugitives  from 
the  pro-slavery  proscription  in  Texas.  The  last 
pound  on  the  camel's  back  had  long  since  been 
placed,  and  his  only  chance  of  life  lay  in  kicking 
off  the  additional  weights,  brought  for  him  to 
bear.  A  counter  secret  organization  was  formed, 
with  the  results  so  far  before  us,  and  it  is  claimed 
for  this  body,  that,  up  to  this  time,  their  efforts 
have  been  to  nip  the  incipient  stages  of  the  onset 


LETTER  I.  223 

extensively  prepared  against  them.  A  project 
is  fondly  entertained  to  erect  a  slave  state  out  of 
the  Indian  territory  to  the  south  of  Kansas,  and 
to  embrace  in  this  new  state  a  portion  of  the  south 
of  Kansas.  It  is  believed  the  Cherokee  lands  were 
run  up  so  high  north,  and  that  the  Missourians 
proposed  to  add  an  additional  strip  by  conquest. 
The  bringing  in  of  troops  from  the  remoter  posts, 
and  the  unnecessary  ordering  of  them  here,  with 
out  a  demand  by  the  Governor,  are  explained 
upon  this  supposition.  All  this  may  have  its  due 
force  in  the  way  of  provocation,  but  it  does  not 
justify  systematic  violence,  in  the  redress  of 
wrong,  when  that  redress  can  be  effected  through 
the  forms  of  law.  Nor  is  a  persistent  determina 
tion  to  encourage  the  escape  of  slaves  and  to  resist 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  to  be  justified,  and  this 
determination,  I  regret  to  say,  has  a  potent  though 
not  a  preponderating  sway  here.  It  may  be 
observed,  that  the  toleration  by  the  General 
Government  of  Southern  contempt  of  its  authority, 
justifies  a  belief  in  an  already  virtual  disunion, 
and  the  victim  of  oppression  by  pro-slavery  men 
and  measures,  feels  himself  no  longer  under  con 
stitutional  restraint  "upon  measures  of  redress. 
But  this  is  revolution,  and  no  more  commendable 
than  that  which  is  appealed  to  as  an  excuse. 


LETTEE  II. 

FORT  SCOTT,  KANSAS,  January  19,  1861. 

I  AM  in  doubt  whether  you  will  care  to  hear 
again  from  me,  as  I  have  nothing  of  interest  to 
report  upon  the  late  troubles  which  seem  to  be 
now  suspended,  and  you  are  now  abundantly 
occupied  with  the  solemn  events  (not  to  say 
farces)  now  enacting  with  a  view  to  the  dissolu 
tion  of  our  Government.  I  am  glad  to  see  some 
signs  of  sanity  and  spirit,  at  last,  in  our  imbecile 
"old  public  functionary,"  and  that  he  can  bring 
his  mind  to  comprehend  that,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  he  is  invested  with  powers  and 
involved  with  responsibilities  to  meet  this  great 
disunion  question  in  the  only  light  which,  as  a 
legal,  moral  and  physical  question,  it  exhibits, 
and  that  is,  in  the  light  of  revolt  and  treason. 
The  right  of  independent  sovereignty  in  the 
respective  states  may  appeal  to  the  pride  of  a 
people,  and  some  may  vainly  suppose  it  to  have 
existed,  but  this  is  obviously  inconsistent  with 


LETTER  II.  225 

the  existence  of  a  separate  Government,  formed 
by  the  Union  of  these  States.  For  then  our  Union 
would  be  but  a  voluntary  league,  in  which  no  Go 
vernment,  as  such,  could  exist — the  efficacy  of  our 
Constitution  all  along  misapprehended,  and  the  ope 
rations  of  our  Government  to  this  time  a  blunder. 
In  fact,  I  may  say  no  State  of  our  Union  ever 
has  been  independent,  as  a  separate  sovereign 
power.  Certainly  the  original  thirteen  States 
were  not,  for  until  the  declaration  of  their  inde 
pendence  of  Great  Britain  they  were,  of  course, 
colonies  to  that  Government;  and  that  declara 
tion  of  itself  was  not  made  in  behalf  of  separate 
States,  but,  in  its  own  language,  "in  the  name  and 
by  the  authority  of  the  good  people  of  these  colo 
nies,"  and  goes  on  to  declare  "  these  United 
Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be  free,"  &c., 
so  that  their  very  act  of  throwing  off  colonial 
allegiance  was  by  means  of  a  Government 
formed  from  a  union  of  the  Colonists.  And  im 
mediately  thereafter  was  formed  the  articles  of 
Confederation,  which  were  not  formed  under  any 
idea  of  separate  sovereignties  in  the  respective 
States,  but  with  a  view  to.  the  best  form  of 
Gvernment  for  all  the  States,  as  a  Union.  And 
these  articles  of  Confederation  expressly  and 
repeatedly  provide,  that  this  Union  "shall  be 
10* 


226  LETTER  IL 

perpetual."-  Years  of  experience  proved  the  arti 
cles  of  Confederation  to  have  defects  which  called 
for  a  remedy,  and  for  this  purpose  the  present 
Constitution  was  adopted,  with  the  avowed  pur 
pose,  as  its  preamble  states,  "  to  form  a  more  per 
fect  Union,"  and  none  of  the  conditions  of  its 
perpetuity,  provided  for  in  the  articles  of  Con 
federation,  were  abrogated  by  this  new  Constitu 
tion.  And  this  Constitution,  by  its  own  pro 
visions,  and  their  adoption  by  the  respective 
States  as  such  is  the  Constitution  of  those  states. 
For  the  language  of  paragraph  second,  Art.  13th 
is,  "  This  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof; 
and  all  treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made, 
under  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  shall  be 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land  ;  and  the  Judges  in 
every  state  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in  the 
Constitution  or  laws  of  any  state  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding." 

The  law,  in  terms  and  by  clear  inference,  is  con 
clusive  against  the  existence  of  independent 
sovereignty  in  the  respective  states,  and  I  have 
indicated,  above,  that  the  thirteen  original  states 
have  not  had  for  any  one  a  separate  existence  as 
a  sovereign  power.  Of  course  it  will  not  be 
claimed  that  the  new  states,  admitted  into  the 


LETTER  II.  227 

Union  have  had.  Texas  exercised  such  power, 
and  was  so  recognised  by  most  civilized  nations, 
as  a  revolted  province  of  Mexico,  but  Mexico 
never  admitted  it,  nor  was  her  separation  from 
Mexico  effectual  till  her  union  with  us  under  our 
Constitution,  which  being  accepted,  became  her 
supreme  law,  anything  in  her  Constitution  or 
laws  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

I  stop  here  with  the  legal  question — the  moral 
obligation  should  have  no  less  force.  "We  all 
know  that  South  Carolina  escaped  vassalage  to 
the  British  Government  through  our  Union,  and 
that  she  and  all  other  seceding  states  hold  their 
present  high  positions  through  the  aid  of  the 
Union,  and  having  availed  herself  of  these  advan 
tages,  through  the  Union,  she  cannot  absolve  her 
self  from  her  obligations  to  the  Union.  Wars 
have  been  prosecuted,  debts  incurred,  and  condi 
tions  entered  upon,  and  must  a  part  of  the  states, 
faithful  to  the  Union,  meet  all  the  responsibilities 
without  that  aid  implied  in  the  Union,  and  as  a 
condition  of  which  their  own  was  pledged?  One 
state,  in  adopting  our  Constitution  may  have 
made  more  sacrifices  of  her  existing  interests  than, 
another  state,  but  she  did  so  upon  the  right  to 
hold  the  other  state  to  the  obligations  she  assumed 
in  entering  the  Union,  and  as  a  condition  of 


228  LETTER  II. 

which  the  sacrifices  were  made.  Much  might  be 
said  of  the  sentiments  of  our  forefathers,  the  his 
tory  of  those  times,  and  of  the  logic  of  the  question, 
to  enforce  these  views,  and  from  which  we  find 
no  other  conclusion  that  the  laws  and  morals  of 
this  disunion  movements  concur  to  denounce  it 
as  revolt,  and  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  best  inter 
ests  of  our  Government  require. 

If  such  a  modification  of  the  Constitution  could 
be  effected,  as  to  allow  the  slave  states  to  with 
draw,  this  would  seem  to  afford  a  peaceful  solu 
tion  to  the  trouble,  but  only  seemingly,  for  diffi 
culties  would  soon  arise  to  involve  the  opposing 
states  in  war.  But  were  it  not  for  the  certainty 
of  this  war,  I  would  not  object  to  this  sort  of  set 
tlement,  for  then  the  North  would  be  at  once  rid 
of  all  responsibility  for  slavery,  and  of  this  eternal 
unhappy  wrangling  over  it.  But  this  mode  is 
impracticable,  and  the  only  thing  left  is  for  the 
Government,  through  its  constitutionally  orga 
nized  means,  to  exercise  its  authority  over  the 
seceding  states,  in  a  discreet  and  conciliatory 
manner,  till  the  present  unfounded  excitement 
subsides.  Of  course  the  present  acts  of  violence 
should  be  met  and  arrested,  but  more  with  a  view 
to  indicate  the  right  of  authority,  than  to  redresa 
a  grievance. 


LETTER  II.  229 

But  I  did  not  sit  down  to  write  homilies  upon 
our  Government,  or  to  indicate  precepts  ^which 
every  schoolboy  in  our  country  should  know  and 
make  his  rule  of  thought  and  action,  but  I  have 
been  unavoidably  drawn  into  it  by  the  theme, 
and  this  must  be  my  excuse. 

So  far  as  I  know  there  are  no  items  of  local 
interest  to  mention.  Montgomery,  so  far  as  I  can 
learn,  is  not  disposed  to  give  the  South  the  benefit 
of  his  example  in  their  revolutionary  schemes, 
and  is  therefore  reserved,  for  the  present,  upon 
the  execution  of  any  he  may  have  contemplated. 
But  in  all  seriousness,  if  we  are  to  have  civil  war 
on  this  slavery  matter,  this  abolition  element  will 
prove  a  powerful  and  effective  one  in  the  prose 
cution  of  it.  I  would  pledge  Montgomery,  with 
ten  thousand  followers  in  the  slave  states,  to  equal 
the  exploits  of  Xenophon  and  his  ten  thousand 
Greeks.  Mark  this,  and  time  shall  show. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  GENERAL  LYON. 

As  everything  connected  with  this  fallen  hero 
possesses  a  historic  as  well  as  local  interest,  we  may 
be  excused  for  referring  again  to  his  birth-place, 
and  the  battle  in  which  he  lost  his  life. 

Several  accounts  have  been  given  of  the  manner 
of  his  death.  Dr.  G.  G.  Lyon,  his  relative  and 
brigade-surgeon,  who  was  with  him  a  moment 
before  and  again  a  moment  after  he  was  shot,  says 
that  General  Lyon  had  been  wounded  by  a  shot  in 
the  heel,  a  shot  through  the  fleshy  part  of  his  thigh, 
and  a  shot  which  cut  open  the  back  of  his  head  to 
the  skull  bone,  and  was  covered  with  blood,  when 
he  saw  him  riding  between  the  Kansas  and  Iowa 
regiments  to  lead  them  to  the  charge.  He  begged 
him  to  retire  to  the  rear  and  have  his  wounds 
dressed.  General  Lyon  replied,  "No — these  are 
nothing,"  went  forward,  and  was  killed  by  a  Minie 
ball  through  the  breast  and  out  at  his  back,  which 


234  APPENDIX. 

severed  the  aorta,  or  principal  blood-vessel  of  the 
heart.  He  fell  into  the  arms  of  Lehman,  his  body- 
servant,  and  said,  "  Lehman,  lam  kitted  ;  take  care 
of  my  body?  and  instantly  expired.  Those  were 
his  last  and  only  words. 

In  private  life,  in  the  camp,  by  the  fireside,  or 
anywhere  with  his  friends  off  duty,  General  Lyon 
was  one  of  the  most  mild,  genial,  and  pleasant  of 
men.  Said  one  of  his  intimate  friends,  "  You 
wouldn't  suppose  he  ever  would  get  angry,  or  be 
roused  to  excitement."  His  favorite  attitude  was 
standing  and  stroking  or  picking  his  long  sandy 
beard.  But  on  his  splendid  horse,  at  the  head  of 
his  little  army,  he  was  literally  "  a  tower  of  strength." 
His  form  straightened  up  two  inches  taller ;  his  eye 
dilated  and  blazed  with  excitement,  and  his  com 
mands  were  given  in  trumpet  tones  that  \vere  heard 
and  obeyed,  through  all  the  deafening  din  of  battle, 
and  he  was  incapable  of  fear. 

The  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek  was  a  most  despe 
rate  fight.  About  three  thousand  five  hundred  was 
the  number  of  our  effective  troops,  who  went  out 
to  contend  with  twenty-three  thousand  of  the  rebel 
army.  The  numbers  of  both  sides  were  pretty 
accurately  known  to  both  armies,  by  their  spies. 
To  lie  still  at  Springfield  would  be  fatal,  to  go  for 
ward  could  be  no  worse — the  reinforcements  so  long 
and  impatiently  wished  for,  so  imperatively  needed, 


APPENDIX.  235 

did  not  arrive.  General  Lyon  determined  to  give 
battle,  not  expecting  to  be  victorious,  but  hoping 
to  cripple  the  enemy  sufficiently  to  cover  his  retreat. 
Another  reason,  not  without  weight,  was  to  show 
the  rebels  that  he  could  fight,  before  he  turned  his 
back  on  them. 

The  result  is  before  the  world.  They  fought  like 
Leonidas  and  his  Greeks — they  fairly  and  com 
pletely  whipped  a  force  of  six  times  their  own  num 
ber,  but  suffered  so  terribly  they  were  unable  to 
pursue.  Gould  they  have  had  but  two  fresh  regi 
ments,  say  Lyon's  officers,  "  we  should  have  chased 
them  into  Arkansas"  and  ended  the  war  in  Mis 
souri.  Regiments  had  asked  to  be  permitted  to  go 
to  Lyon's  aid,  weeks  before,  but  were  withheld. 
There  is  a  bitter  feeling  against  the  Secretary  of 
War  in  consequence. 

In  the  course  of  the  battle,  Captain  Plummer — an 
experienced  officer  of  the  regular  army,  who  is 
modest  as  he  is  brave — was  stationed  in  a  large 
cornfield,  with  four  companies  of  regulars,  where 
he  was  atacked  in  front  and  in  flank  by  three  regi 
ments  of  rebels — nearly  three  thousand  men. 
Said  Lyon,  when  Plummer's  position  was  reported 
to  him,  "He's  lost."  But  Captain  Plummer  and 
his  brave  band  faced  the  deadly  crossfire,  and  cut 
their  way  through,  coming  out  with  only  ten  men 
to  his  largest  company.  Captain  Plummer  received 


236  APPENDIX. 

a  Minie  ball  in  his  hip  at  the  commencement  of  the 
attack,  but  maintained  his  seat  on  his  horse,  and  the 
lead  of  his  men,  till  they  were  out  of  present  dan 
ger — he  then  fainted  and  fell,  badly  wounded.  "  It 
was  hard,"  said  Captain  P.,  relating  this  scene,  "  to 
see  men  that  had  been  with  me  in  all  sorts  of  danger 
for  twenty  years,  fall  wounded,  begging  for  help,  and 
be  unable  to  give  them  even  a  drink  of  water ;  and 
to  be  obliged  to  leave  them,  and  see  some  of  them 
bayoneted  on  the  spot  by  the  rebels." 

Then,  after  Captain  P.  and  his  surviving  soldiers 
had  cut  through,  and  the  three  thousand  rebels 
crowded  the  cornfield,  Captain  Totten's  artillery 
opened  on  them  with  terrible  effect.  Dr.  Lyon  was 
near  enough  to  see  them  distinctly  with  his  glass. 
The  round  shot  ploughed  bloody  furrows  through 
the  thick  ranks,  and  shell  and  shrapnell  carried  death 
on  every  hand.  Just  here  occurred  the  following 
extraordinary  incident,  witnessed  by  Dr.  Lyon,  just 
before  the  enemy  retreated : 

A  tall  rebel  soldier  waved  a  large  and  costly 
secession  flag  defiantly,  when  a  cannon  ball  struck 
him  to  the  earth,  dead.  A  second  soldier  instantly 
picked  up  the  prostrate  flag,  and  waved  it  again — 
a  second  cannon  ball  shattered  his  body.  A  third 
soldier  raised  and  waved  the  flag,  and  a  third  cannon 
ball  crashed  into  his  breast  and  he  fell  dead.  Yet 
a  fourth  time  was  the  flag  raised — the  soldier 


APPENDIX.  237 

waved  it,  and  turned  to  climb  over  the  fence  with 
it  into  the  woods.  As  he  stood  astride  the  fence  a 
moment,  balancing  to  keep  the  heavy  flag  upright, 
a.  fourth  cannon  ball  struck  him  in  the  side,  cutting 
him  completely  in  two,  so  that  one  half  of  his  body 
fell  one  side  of  the  fence  and  the  other  half  the 
other  side,  while  the  flag  itself  lodged  on  the  fence, 
and  was  captured  a  few  moments  afterwards  by  our 
troops.  Our  troops  captured  three  rebel  flags,  but 
lost  none. 

The  body  of  General  Lyon  was  laid  out  in  state 
at  the  camp,  at  the  close  of  this  bloody  day,  and 
not  an  officer  or  private  but  shed  bitter  tears  as 
they  gazed  on  their  dead  General,  almost  idolized 
by  every  man  of  them  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  He  was  buried  on  the  farm  of  Colonel 
John  S.  Phelps,  a  native  of  Windham  county, 
Connecticut,  and  for  many  years  a  member  of  Con 
gress  from  Missouri.  He  is  a  strong  Union  man, 
and  is  now  raising  a  regiment  for  the  United 
States  army,  while  the  rebels  have  seized  his  pro 
perty. 

General  Lyon  wras  never  married,  it  being  a  fre 
quently  expressed  opinion  of  his  that  a  soldier 
ought  not  to  encumber  himself  with  a  family.  It  is 
stated  that  he  left  a  will  leaving  all  his  property, 
worth  some  $30,000,  to  his  country,  to  which  he 
has  already  given  his  life.  His  sword,  chapeau,  and 


238  APPENDIX. 

commission  were  given  by  his  friends  to  the  state 
of  his  nativity. 

Another  incident  is  worthy  of  record  in  this  con 
nexion,  also  related  to  us  by  Dr.  Lyon.  We  refer 
to  the  daring  and  desperate  charge  of  Lieutenant 
Sullivan  and  fifteen  of  the  United  States  cavalry,  at 
the  cattle^  of  Dug  Spring,  in  which  General  Lyon 
was  engaged.  Lieutenant  Sullivan,  in  the  course  of 
the  battle,  suddenly  found  himself  faced  by  a  full 
regiment  of  rebels.  With  a  sudden  impulse  he 
loudly  shouted :  "All  brave  men  follow  me  !"  and 
dashed  forwards  like  lightning,  fifteen  men  following. 
With  one  jump  they  were  out  of  sight,  in  the 
midst  of  the  rebel  ranks;  then  their  sabres  were 
seen  flashing  and  slashing,  and  their  pistols  heard 
cracking.  For  an  instant  the  centre  of  the  mass 
was  seen  to  heave  and  sway,  then  the  rebels 
wavered  and  broke,  actually  driven  by  sixteen  men, 
and  the  little  band  emerged  from  the  turmoil  with 
four  killed  and  six  wounded.  And,  what  is  most 
remarkable,  Lieutenant  Sullivan  came  out  with  Jive 
balls  in  his  own  body  and  thirteen  in  his  horse,  none 
of  which  proved  fatal !  Both  man  and  horse  are 
now  nearly  sound  again,  and,  says  the  brave  Lieu 
tenant,  "  There  isn't  money  enough  in  the  United 
States  to  buy  that  horse!" — Hartford  Evening 
JPress. 


OBSEQUIES    OF    GENERAL    LYON. 


THE  body  of  General  Lyon,  which  was  tempo 
ral  ily  interred,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  on 
the  farm  of  the  Hon.  J.  S.  Phelps,  about  three 
miles  from  the  battle-field  at  Wilson's  Creek,  was 
shortly  afterwards  exhumed  by  his  relatives,  under 
a  flag  of  truce,  and  transported  to  St.  Louis. 

The  turn-out  of  the  military  at  St.  Louis  (says 
the  funeral-editor  of  The  Herald,  to  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  what  follows),  was  immense.  Stores 
and  dwelling  houses  were  draped  in  mourning,  and 
the  entire  city  seemed  to  bewail  the  fall  of  this  gal 
lant  soldier  as  a  national  calamity. 

In  Cincinnati  the  obsequies  were  likewise  observed 
by  the  citizens  and  soldiery,  and  upon  the  arrival 
of  the  body  it  was  placed  in  Smith  and  Nixon's 
Hall,  and  there  laid  in  state,  guarded  by  the 
military. 

In  Pittsburg,  the  corpse  was  received  by  several 
companies  of  the  Home  Guard,  and  escorted  to  the 
depot,  Major  Conant,  the  Aide-de-Camp  of  the  late 
General,  and  commander  of  the  escort,  declining 
any  more  extensive  demonstration. 


240  APPENDIX. 

The  military  of  Philadelphia  paid  marked  respect 
to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  deceased,  detach 
ments  of  the  First  Artillery  Home  Guard  acting  as 
guard  of  honor,  and  the  Second  Infantry  of  the  line, 
Colonel  Dare,  escorting  the  body  to  the  railroad 
depot. 

THE    ARRIVAL    IN   NEW    YORK. 

The  steamboat  Richard  Stockton,  running  in  con 
nexion  with  the  Carnden  and  Amboy  Railroad, 
arrived  at  the  foot  of  Courtlandt  Street  at  about 
half-past  two  o'clock,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  31st  of 
August.  The  flags  of  the  vessel  were  at  half-mast, 
as  well  as  some  of  the  shipping  in  the  vicinity.  At 
the  ferry  the  Third  Company  National  Guard, 
Seventh  Regiment,  New  York  State  Militia,  having 
been  detailed  as  an  escort  by  Colonel  Lefferts,  was 
drawn  up  in  line,  and  presented  arms  when  the 
body,  carried  by  the  guard  detailed  by  Major  Gene 
ral  Fremont  to  accompany  it,  passed  through.  A 
large  number  of  citizens  was  also  present  at  the 
pier  to  witness  the  arrival  of  the  corpse. 

THE   ESCORT    OF    THE   REMAINS. 

The  following  military  and  civic  gentlemen  com 
posed  the  escort : — 

Major  H.  A.  Con  ant,  Quartermaster  of  General 
Lyon's  division;  Captain  George  P.  Edgar,  of 
General  Fremont's  staff;  Dr.  G.  G.  Lyon,  of  the 


APPENDIX.  241 

Missouri  Brigade,  a  cousin  of  the  deceased ;  Cap 
tain  J.  B.  Plummer,  of  the  United  States  Army, 
who  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek, 
who  is  accompanied  by  his  wife ;  Lieutenant  E.  J. 
Clark  and  eight  privates  of  the  Missouri  Home 
Reserve  Corps  in  uniform;  Danfield  Knowlton, 
Esq.,  of  this  city ;  J.  B.  Haslet,  of  Webster,  Mas 
sachusetts,  brother-in-law  of  deceased;  Mr.  P. 
McQuillan,  of  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  and  James  H. 
Brown,  of  the  Cincinnati  Times. 

THE    MARCH    TO    THE   CITY    HALL. 

After  the  appropriate  ceremonies  of  taking  charge 
of  the  coffin  by  the  company  of  National  Guard 
troops,  the  line  of  march  to  the  City  Hall  was  taken 
up  in  the  following  order : — Company  C,  Seventh 
regiment,  with  arms  reversed ;  section  of  police  of 
Twenty-seventh  precinct ;  Drum  Corps  of  Seventh 
regiment,  with  muffled  drums.  Undertaker  and 
hearse,  drawn  by  four  horses,  caparisoned  with 
sable  plumes  and  crape,  and  escorted  on  either  side 
by  the  officers  and  privates  of  the  Third  Missouri 
Home  Reserve  Corps ;  Officers  and  friends  of  the 
deceased  followed  the  hearse  in  carriages. 

THE  BODY  AT  THE  GOVERNOR'S  ROOM. 

At  an  early  hour  in  the  morning,  Mr.  Roome,  the 
keeper  of  the  City  Hall,  received  orders  to  prepare 
11 


242  APPENDIX 

the  Governor's  Room  for  the  reception  of  the 
corpse,  where  it  is  to  lie  in  state  until  its  removal 
to  Eastford,  Connecticut.  He  accordingly  draped 
the  large  chamber  inside  and  outside  in  mourning, 
and  placed  the  flags  on  the  roof  at  half-mast.  The 
entrance  to  the  City  Hall  was  guarded  by  policemen, 
who  kept  the  crowd  at  a  respectful  distance  while 
the  body  was  being  carried  to  the  Governor's  Room. 
When  the  funeral  cortege  arrived  in  front  of  the 
Hall,  Captain  Price  drew  up  his  company  in  line 
and  the  coffin  was  taken  from  the  hearse  by  the  Mis 
souri  soldiers  accompanying  the  remains,  and  car 
ried  to  their  designated  place.  The  undertaker  had 
already  placed  pedestals  in  the  centre  of  the  room, 
upon  which  the  corpse  was  deposited.  Beyond  the 
company  of  the  Seventh  Regiment  and  the  members 
of  the  Common  Council,  no  one  was  permitted  to 
enter  the  room.  Sergeant  Legett  posted  his  guard 
immediately,  which  are  relieved  every  two  hours. 

THE   BURIAL   CASE    CONTAINING   THE   REMAINS. 

The  wooden  box  in  which  the  remains  of  the 
deceased  were  placed  was  considerably  shattered 
while  on  the  journey  to  New  York ;  consequently 
the  body  was  put  into  a  metallic  coffin,  painted  to 
represent  rosewood. 

In  the  centre  of  the  coffin  was  fastened  a  silver 
plate,  bearing  the  following  inscription  : 


APPENDIX.  243 

"  GENERAL  NATHANIEL  LYON,  died  August  1 0, 
1861,  aged  42  years." 

The  burial  case  was  bedecked  with  the  American 
flag.  At  the  head  lay  the  chapeau  of  the  late  gene 
ral,  in  the  centre  a  wreath  of  evergreens  and  immor 
telles,  and  at  the  feet  the  sword  which  was  grasped 
in  General  Lyon's  hand  while  leading  his  gallant 
troops.  The  escort  accompanying  the  remains  from 
St.  Louis  withdrew,  as  soon  as  Captain  Price  took 
the  body  in  charge,  to  their  quarters  at  the  Metro 
politan  hotel. 

The  remains  of  General  Lyon  lay  three  days  in 
state,  at  the  City  Hall.  On  the  2d  of  September, 
free  access  was  allowed  all  persons  to  view  the  coffin 
from  nine  o'clock  A.M.,  until  one  o'clock  P.M.,  and 
daring  that  time  upwards  of  fifteen  thousand  per 
sons  visited  the  Governor's  Room,  where  the 
remains  have  reposed  since  their  arrival  in  this  city 
on  Saturday  last.  A  body  of  police  carefully 
guarded  the  entrance  to  the  room,  and  none  were 
admitted  but  those  who  really  seemed  to  under 
stand  the  scene  on  which  they  were  about  to  gaze. 
Company  C,  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  Captain  Price, 
were  detached  as  a  guard  of  honor,  to  keep  watch 
over  the  body,  and  two  soldiers  stood  at  the  head 
and  two  at  the  foot  of  the  coffin  during  the  day. 
The  stream  of  visitors  continued  during  the  entire 


244  APPENDIX. 

time  allotted  for  the  reception,  and  one  by  one  the 
citizens  were  admitted,  who  slowly  walked  around 
the  coffin  and  made  their  departure  through  another 
door  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  room. 

The  whole  proceedings  were  conducted  with  that 
solemnity  and  good  taste  which  were  due  to  the 
memory  of  the  departed  soldier,  and  the  deeds 
which  have  made  his  name  famous  in  the  annals  of 
his  glorious  profession.  Each  visitor  looked  as 
though  he  or  she  felt  with  a  true  force,  the  peculiar 
circumstances  which  led  to  the  untimely  death  of 
the  brave  Lyon.  Although  the  coffin  wras  not 
uncovered  during  the  day,  and  no  curious  eyes 
could  gaze  upon  the  sacred  features  of  the  dead,  yet 
all  seemed  imbued  with  the  same  melancholy  and 
holiness  of  feeling  which  are  sure  to  be  harrowed 
up  when  confronting,  face  to  face,  the  grim  monster 
death.  All  knew  that  Nathaniel  Lyon  lay  within 
the  narrow  limits  of  his  last  couch,  wrapped  in  his 
winding-sheet,  with  that  eagle  eye,  which  was  wont 
to  gaze  upon  so  many  scenes  of  bloodshed,  closed 
for  ever ;  with  that  arm,  which  so  often  dealt  the 
death-blow  to  the  enemies  of  his  country,  now 
palsied  in  death  ;  with  .that  heart,  which  pulsated  so 
warmly  with  patriotic  emotion,  now  stilled  for  ever ; 
and  with  that  tongue,  which  at  Wilson's  Creek  rung 
out  the  notes  of  encouragement  to  his  charging  sol 
diers,  now  unable  to  utter  a  syllable.  These  were 


APPENDIX.  245 

reflections  enough  to  make  all  feel  sad.  Ay,  there 
lay  General  Nathaniel  Lyon,  clothed  in  the  robes 
of  the  grave,  but  surrounded  by  those  whose  hearts 
beat  aloud  in  commiseration  for  his  hasty  death. 
Every  one  felt  that  he  died  the  noblest  death  known 
to  humanity.  They  pictured  in  their  mind's  eye, 
the  stirring  scene  where  he  fell  from  his  horse  and 
yielded  up  the  dearest  boon  that  humanity  can 
boast  of— life — in  defence  of  his  country  and  her 
honor.  They  thought,  in  the  distance,  they  recog 
nised  that  tall  form  seated  upon  a  horse,  with  his 
eye  lit  up  with  the  valor  of  his  soul,  as  with  hat  in 
hand  he  cheered  on  the  men  of  the  Union  to  charge 
the  enemy.  There  he  sat  as  proud  as  any  mortal 
can  be,  for  his  position  recognises  it.  He  cared  not 
for  the  storm  of  iron  hail  that  swept  its  terrible 
course  above  and  around  him,  for  the  red,  white 
and  blue  fluttered  before  his  vision  and  obstructed 
all  other  objects.  But  see,  his  last  hour  has  come. 
The  General  falls  from  his  horse  struck  by  a  bullet 
from  the  enemy ;  his  countrymen  surround  him ; 
those  eyes  are  glazed  in  death ;  one  glance  towards 
the  enemy's  lines,  a  last  towards  heaven,  and 
Nathaniel  Lyon  yields  up  his  spirit  to  his  Creator. 
A  number  of  officers  of  our  volunteer  and  militia 
regiments  also  thronged  the  room  during  the  day, 
and  hundreds  of  ladies  were  among  the  civilians 
who  gazed  upon  the  coffin.  It  was  a  refreshing 


246  APPENDIX. 

sight  to  see  tender-hearted  women  weeping  as  they 
passed  through — a  jnst  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
the  soldier.  On  the  coffin  were  the  sword  and  hat 
of  deceased,  together  with  a  quantity  of  flowers 
strewn  upon  the  lid.  The  flag  under  which  the 
general  fought  and  fell  was  wound  around  the  head 
of  the  coffin,  attached  to  which  was  a  piece  of  white 
paper,  with  the  following  inscription  : 

TO   THE    LION-HEARTED   GEN.  NATHANIEL   LYON. 

Thy  name  is  immortal ; 

Thy  battles  are  o'er; 
Sleep,  sleep,  calmly  sleep, 

On  thy  dear  native  shore. 
NEW  YORK,  Sept.  2, 1861. 

The  poetry  was  written  evidently  by  a  lady,  and 
was  placed  upon  the  coffin  during  the  day. 

THE   FUNERAL   PROCESSION. 

It  was  not  until  shortly  after  three  o'clock  that 
the  military  began  to  form  in  the  Park  for  the  fune 
ral  procession.  The  Park  was  filled  by  a  large 
crowd,  who  conducted  themselves  with  that  deco 
rum  and  silence  which  befitted  the  place  and  the 
occasion.  The  Seventh  Regiment  were  drawn  up 
in  line  opposite  the  Hall,  and  presented  a  splendid 
appearance,  dressed  in  white  pantaloons,  grey  coats, 
and  full  dress  hats.  Silence  reigned  amid  the  vast 
crowd,  and  no  jocose  word  or  rowdy  expression 


APPENDIX.  247 

disturbed  the  solemnity  of  the  hour.  At  four 
o'clock  the  coffin  was  borne  from  the  Governor's 
Room  by  the  Missouri  volunteers,  who  escorted  the 
remains  home,  and  placed  upon  the  hearse,  drawn 
by  four  grey  horses,  which  was  in  readiness  to 
receive  them.  The  procession  then  filed  into 
Broadway,  as  follows : — Detachment  of  the  Fourth 
Regiment  Artillery,  with  four  guns ;  Companies  B 
and  C  Third  Regiment  Hussars,  two  hundred  men  ; 
Grafula's  Band,  thirty  pieces;  Seventh  Regiment 
(National  Guard),  seven  hundred  strong ;  Hearse ; 
Missouri  escort  and  Co.  C,  Seventh  Regiment,  on 
both  sides ;  officers  of  the  Sixty-ninth,  Sixth,  Ele 
venth,  and  other  regiments;  carriages  containing 
members  of  the  Common  Council. 

Broadway  was  crowded  on  each  side  with  people, 
but  the  occasion  was  in  itself  a  more  peculiar  one 
than  any  which  our  citizens  have  been  called  upon 
to  participate  in  for  some  time.  No  enthusiasm 
could  be  exhibited,  no  cheering  or  waving  of  hand 
kerchiefs,  none  of  the  wild  excitement  which  has 
been  the  leading  feature  of  our  great  thoroughfare 
for  the  past  four  months.  All  was  sombre  and  still. 
The  multitude  were  aware  of  the  duty  which  they 
owed  the  dead  soldier,  and  respect,  sympathy,  and 
devotedness  were  plainly  portrayed  on  every  fea 
ture.  The  people  lined  the  sidewalks  on  either 
side,  while  the  windows  and  piazzas  were  equally 


248  APPENDIX. 

well  filled  with  ladies,  who  gazed  sadly  down  upon 
the  soul-stirring  procession.  Nearly  every  flag  upon 
Broadway,  and  indeed  throughout  the  whole  city, 
was  at  half-mast,  and  several  of  them  draped  in 
mourning.  The  guns  of  the  artillery  detachment 
which  joined  in  the  procession  were  also  draped  in 
mourning,  and  Broadway  never  before  looked  so 
sombre  as  it  did  while  the  funeral  was  wending 
its  way  to  the  New  Haven  Depot.  The  Seventh, 
marching  with  their  arms  reversed,  headed  by  a  fine 
band  playing  the  mournful  strains  of  a  dead  march, 
lent  a  good  deal  of  solemn  grandeur  to  the  whole 
scene. 

The  route  of  the  procession  was  up  Broadway  to 
Fifth  Avenue,  up  Fifth  Avenue  to  Twenty-seventh 
Street,  and  up  Twenty-seventh  Street  to  the  New 
Haven  Railroad  Depot,  where  the  body  remained 
over  night,  in  order  to  be  transported  to  Connec 
ticut  at  an  early  hour  the  next  morning. 

The  body  of  General  Lyon  was  removed  to  Hart 
ford,  prior  to  its  interment  in  the  family  burying- 
ground  at  Eastford.  The  ovation  tendered  to  the 
inanimate  body  of  the  brave  soldier,  on  the  part  of 
the  citizens  of  Hartford,  was  tremendous,  the  mili 
tary  and  the  citizens  vieing  with  each  other  in  the 
demonstrations  of  respect  towards  the  dead,  and  of 
hospitality  to  the  escort.  When  the  escort  arrived 


APPENDIX.  249 

at  Hartford,  it  rained  as  if  the  gates  of  Heaven  had 
broken  loose ;  yet,  notwithstanding  the  shower,  the 
parade  in  all  its  details  was  observed,  and  the 
remains  lay  in  state  at  the  Capitol,  guarded  by  the 
City  Guard  and  Light  Guard  alternately. 

A  special  train  was  provided  to  convey  the  body 
of  General  Lyons,  his  escort  from  St.  Louis,  the 
military  of  Hartford,  consisting  of  the  City  Guard, 
Captain  Prentice ;  the  Light  Guard,  Lieutenant 
Kiffen  commanding,  accompanied  by  Colt's  Armory 
band,  and  a  rifled  six-pound  field  piece.  Among 
the  guests  on  the  train  were  Major  General  J.  T. 
Pratt,  commanding  Connecticut  State  Militia;  his 
Honor  Mayor  Dinning,  of  Hartford ;  ex-Governor 
Cleveland,  Colonel  G.  S.  Burnham,  Second  Connec 
ticut  Volunteers ;  Captains  Gore,  Merrills,  and  Hoi- 
comb,  of  the  same  regiment.  The  following  gentle 
men  acted  as  pallbearers  in  the  procession  to  the 
cars  on  leaving  Hartford: — General  Pratt,  Major 
Dey,  Major  Goodwin,  General  Waterman,  Major 
Leverit  Seymour,  and  David  Clark,  Esq. 

The  train  carrying  the  remains  and  the  escort  was 
draped  in  mourning,  and  left  the  depot  about  one 
o'clock,  arriving  at  Willimantic  about  a  quarter  past 
three  o'clock.  This  place  being  a  large  manufac 
turing  town,  employing  numerous  hands,  chiefly 
females,  was  all  alive.  Not  only  the  actual  resi 
dents  of  Willimantic  were  assembled  at  the  depot, 
11* 


250  APPENDIX. 

but  from  a  circuit  of  thirty  miles  around,  the  coun 
try  folks  flocked  in  to  the  town  to  do  honor  to  the 
remains  of  the  brave  deceased,  and  to  behold  the 
mournful  scene.  American  flags,  large  and  small, 
draped  with  black  borders,  were  suspended  from 
houses  and  trees,  and  the  weather  even  seeming  to 
harmonize  with  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion. 

The  day  was  beautifully  serene,  and  not  a  breath 
of  air  wafted  those  banners  hung  at  half-mast  to 
signalize  the  grief  of  the  multitude.  This  being 
the  terminus  of  the  railroad  towards  Eastford, 
whither  the  funeral  cortege  was  wending  its  way, 
arrangements  previously  made  for  the  conveyance 
of  the  party  escorting  the  remains  were  carried  into 
effect.  Hundreds  of  wagons,  from  a  single  horse 
buggy  to  the  cumbrous  market  wagon  drawn  by 
four  horses,  were  pressed  into  service.  Major  Dor- 
sett,  the  Sheriff  of  Windham  county  and  Postmas 
ter  of  Eastford,  superintended  the  disposal  of  the 
vehicles,  and  after  a  great  deal  of  labor,  and  con 
siderably  after  four  o'clock,  the  cortege  was  set  in 
motion.  First  came  the  military,  then  the  Missou- 
rians  in  charge  of  the  remains,  deposited  in  a  hearse 
drawn  by  four  jet  black  horses,  which  were  brought 
along  from  Hartford.  Next  came  an  immense 
number  of  conveyances,  carrying  the  relatives  of  the 
deceased,  and  citizens.  The  roads  were  lined  with 
people,  young  and  old,  and  flags  at  half-mast  were 


APPENDIX.  251 

visible  at  almost  every  house  the  cortege  passed. 
The  tolling  of  village  church  bells  added  materially 
to  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion.  To  give  a  correct 
number  of  the  vehicles  in  the  procession  would  be 
a  thing  next  to  impossible.  Certain  it  is,  however, 
that  they  exceeded  three  hundred. 

Eastford,  which  is  sixteen  miles  distant  from 
Willimantic,  but  having  a  somewhat  hilly  yet  not 
impassable  road  leading  thereto,  was  reached  at 
about  nine  o'clock  by  the  head  of  the  procession. 
About  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  town  the  Light 
Guard,  City  Guard,  of  Hartford,  with  their  band, 
Mayor  Conant  and  his  party,  composing  the  pall 
bearers  and  numerous  citizens,  alighted  from  their 
vehicles  and  formed  in  procession.  On  a  hill,  a  short 
distance  to  the  right  from  where  the  cortege  com 
menced  to  move,  was  planted  the  six-pounder,  men 
tioned  above  as  being  carried  by  the  Hartford  City 
Guard,  which  pealed  forth  minute  salutes,  while  the 
bells  of  the  churches  at  Eastford  tolled  a  mournful 
chime.  When  the  cortege  came  to  within  a  half  or 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  town  proper,  the 
road,  being  lined  on  either  side  with  fine  trees, 
myriads  of  lights,  candles,  lanterns,  rushes,  and 
every  conceivable  burning  material  were  ignited  to 
illuminate  the  path.  The  people  were  arrayed  on 
the  right  and  left  of  the  road,  the  males  respectfully 
doffed  their  hats,  while  the  females  manifested  signs 


252  APPENDIX. 

of  respect  and  grief  otherwise.  Nearly  all  the  win 
dows  of  the  houses  in  town  were  filled,  and  especi 
ally  those  fronting  the  road  on  which  the  procession 
passed.  The  whole  scene  was  sad  and  affecting, 
the  band  playing  the  "  Dead  March  in  Saul"  as  the 
church  was  reached  wherein  the  body  of  the  illus 
trious  dead  was  to  be  deposited  until  the  final  burial 
service,  on  the  next  day.  The  remains  were  placed 
on  a  bier  in  the  Congregational  church,  which  is 
situated  on  an  eminence,  west  of  the  road  by  which 
the  cortege  entered  the  village,  but  was  reached 
by  a  circuitous  route,  in  order  to  give  the  townsfolk 
an  opportunity  to  see  the  torchlight  procession. 

The  City  Guard,  in  command  of  Captain  Prentice, 
had  the  honor  of  guarding  the  remains  of  General 
Lyon  during  the  night,  the  watches  being  set  every 
two  hours,  and  relieved  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
service.  The  remainder  of  the  escort  were  taken 
care  of  by  the  inhabitants,  some  of  whom  accommo 
dated  no  less  than  fifteen  or  sixteen  persons,  and 
supplied  them  with  comfortable  beds.  And  here  it 
will  not  be  out  of  place  to  particularize  the  genial 
hospitality  of  the  inhabitants  of  Eastford,  who  were 
only  too  pressing  in  forcing  their  bounty  on  their 
guests.  To  mention  any  names,  and  not  enumerate 
the  entire  inhabitants,  \vould  do  the  latter  great 
injustice  ;  but  the  writer  of  this  will  be  pardoned  if 
he  pays  the  compliment  of  a  notice  to  Rev.  C.  C. 


APPENDIX.  253 

Adams,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Minister ;  H.  B. 
Burnharn,  Esq. ;  Rev.  Mr.  Chamberlin,  of  the  Con 
gregational  church  ;  Dr.  Robbins ;  Foster  Skinner, 
Esq.,  and  a  few  others,  whose  names  he  could  not 
obtain.  To  Mr.  Burnham  our  reporter  is  personally 
indebted  for  the  courteous  and  hospitable  manner 
in  which  he  treated  him,  inasmuch  as  the  only 
tavern  in  the  town  could  not  possibly  accommodate 
any  more  than  were  there  already  on  the  arrival  of 
the  procession. 

Having  reached  Eastford  safely,  deposited  the 
coffin  and  its  esteemed  remains  under  a  guard  at 
the  church,  and  disposing  of  the  escort  quartered 
comfortably,  we  will  now  turn  our  attention  to  the 
flourishing  town  itself,  which,  prior  to  this  occur 
rence,  was  comparatively  unknown  in  this  city, 
except  by  those  who  stood  in  business  connexion 
with  it,  or  had  probably  relatives  residing  there. 
Otherwise,  to  the  masses  it  was  an  unknown  spot, 
and  to  some  it  would  even  have  been  a  difficult  task 
to  point  it  out  on  the  map.  Nevertheless,  Eastford 
is  not  an  unimportant  town  in  the  wooden  nutmeg 
State,  as  it  will  be  seen  directly. 

The  site  of  this  place  seems  to  have  been  selected 
with  an  eye  to  the  health  of  its  inhabitants,  as  well 
as  a  romantic  location.  Surrounded  by  hills,  from 
which  a  pure  air  is  wafted,  the  soil  affords  the  most 
beautiful  wells,  which  are  sunk  on  an  average  about 


254  APPENDIX. 

twenty  feet  below  the  surface.  Through  the  east 
side  of  the  town  flows  a  somewhat  unimportant 
river,  known  as  "  Still  River,"  which  is  not  naviga 
ble,  but  is"  used  extensively  for  watering  cattle. 
Northward,  about  half  a  mile  before  reaching  the 
town,  however,  this  stream  falls  a  distance  of  about 
thirty-five  feet,  the  roar  of  which  is  somewhat  simi 
lar  to  the  Buttermilk  Falls  at  Troy.  The  water  of 
these  falls  runs  with  such  rapidity  that  it  would 
prove  invaluable  as  a  power  for  manufacturing 
purposes. 

Eastford  is  situated  in  Windham  County,  sixteen 
miles  north  of  Willimantic,  and  twelve  miles  south 
of  Southbridge,  near  which  latter  place  is  the  State 
line.  Eight  miles  east  of  the  town  is  Putnam,  a 
station  on  the  railroad  leading  to  Norwich,  Provi 
dence,  and  Boston. 

The  industrial  enterprise  of  the  place  consists  of 
the  manufacture  of  woollen  and  cotton  goods,  shoe 
manufactories,  tanneries,  etc.,  and  likewise  of  con 
siderable  farming  interest,  the  cultivated  lands 
being  situated  beyond  the  hills  surrounding  the 
town.  Windham  county  is  the  one  that  gave  the 
Republicans  of  Connecticut  the  majority  at  the  last 
election  for  Governor,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of 
that  borough  Governor  Buckingham  owes  his  elec 
tion  over  his  less  successful  democratic  opponent, 
General  Pratt. 


APPENDIX.  255 

In  our  Revolutionary  history  the  county  of  Wind- 
ham  has  also  played  a  most  important  rdle.  Within 
its  borders  lived  General  Israel  Putnam,  at  Pom- 
fred,  five  miles  east  of  Eastford;  the  gallant  Colonel 
Knowlton  and  Hale  were  born  at  Ashford ;  and 
last,  though  not  least,  the  lamented,  brave,  and 
heroic  General  Lyon,  who  offered  up  his  life  on  the 
altar  of  his  country's  integrity,  drew  his  first  breath 
of  life  in  the  romantic  little  village  we  here  describe 
Another  star  in  the  galaxy  of  renowned  individuals, 
who  is  claimed  by  the  people  of  Eastford  as  one  to 
"  the  manner  born,"  is  the  Hon.  Galusha  A.  Grow, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  who  is 
only  known  as  the  Hon.  Mr.  Grow,  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  from  the  fact  of  his  having  resided  there  almost 
since  his  infancy,  but  is  nevertheless  a  native  of  the 
"  land  of  steady  habits,"  and  of  Eastford. 

The  population  of  the  town,  as  shown  by  the  last 
census,  is  somewhat  over  1200.  It  also  boasts  of 
three  churches — a  Methodist,  a  Presbyterian,  and 
a  Congregational,  and  a  tavern  tolerably  well  kept, 
three  stores,  and  very  hospitable,  generous  people. 
Pretty  ladies  also  abound  here.  The  produce 
raised  hereabout  consists  mainly  of  corn  and  fruit, 
while  hay  forms  a  very  important  item  to  the  farmer, 
which  pays  him  a  very  fair  income.  Poultry  in 
great  numbers  is  raised  by  them,  mainly  for  the 
Boston  market,  and  about  the  holidays  hundreds  of 


256  APPENDIX. 

tons  are  sent  to  this  "City  of  Notions"  for  home 
consumption.  The  Bostonians,  by  paying  a  higher 
price  for  that  luxury  than  New  Yorkers,  are  pre 
ferred,  and  consequently  receive  almost  the  entire 
stock  raised  in  this  neighborhood. 

Sickness  in  the  town  of  Eastford  is  a  thing  almost 
unknown,  and  although  it  has  a  resident  physician 
— a  very  clever  man,  Dr.  Robbins — if  he  had  to 
depend  upon  the  cases  coming  under  his  care  at 
Eastford  he  could  scarcely  earn  enough  to  feed  his 
horse.  A  Post  Office,  of  which  Major  Dorsett  is 
the  keeper,  is  also  situated  here,  and  a  daily  mail  is 
received  from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  country. 

The  houses  are  mostly  built  of  wood ;  here  and 
there  can  be  seen  a  structure  of  brick,  or  brown 
granite;  but  the  major  portion  are  constructed  with 
rare  architectural  beauty,  and  the  vegetable  and 
flower  garden  invariably  grace  the  front  side 
thereof. 

This  is  about  as  full  a  description  as  can  be  given 
of  this  town,  and  it  can  scarcely  be  credited  that 
such  a  vast  number  of  people  as  were  assembled 
there  on  the  day  of  the  obsequies  of  General  Lyon 
could  have  found  accommodation  for  themselves  or 
their  beasts.  Thursday,  the  5th  of  September,  dawned 
with  all  the  brilliancy  of  an  Indian  summer  morning. 
The  heavy  dew  soon  melted  before  the  rays  of  a 
powerful  sun,  and  had  it  not  been  the  mournful 


APPENDIX.  257 

occasion  that  attracted  the  vast  multitude,  the 
appearance  of  the  town  would  have  likened  more  a 
fair  on  a  gigantic  scale  than  the  funeral  of  a  brave 
and  honored  soldier.  As  it  was,  the  scene  the  town 
presented,  even  in  its  mournful  aspect,  was  one  of 
solemn  interest,  moving  the  beholder  to  thought- 
fulness,  if  not  to  gravity. 

Almost  from  break  of  day  the  rattling  of  wheels 
and  patter  of  horses'  feet  were  heard  coming  into 
town,  each  vehicle  loaded  down  to  its  utmost  capa 
city  with  men,  women,  and  children,  the  occupants 
being  decked  out  in  their  Sunday-go-to-meeting 
clothes.  Huge  baskets  of  provender  accompanied 
the  expedition  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  mournful 
errand,  the  good  people  from  the  country  seemed 
to  be  conscious  of  the  fact  that  one  cannot  exist 
upon  grief  and  sympathy  even  for  one  day. 

The  fact  of  the  remains  being  deposited  in  the 
Congregational  Church  seemed  to  be  known  to  all 
corners,  inasmuch  as  soon  as  the  horses  and  wagons 
were  safely  brought  in  everybody  ascended  the  hill 
upon  which  the  little  church  is  built,  and  from  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  near  eleven  one  con 
tinuous  stream  of  people  lined  the  road  to  the  chapel. 
On  the  slope  of  this  eminence  benches  for  the  accom 
modation  of  visitors  were  erected,  while  on  the 
edge  of  the  highway,  running  below  the  hill  of  the 
church,  a  distance  of  probably  five  hundred  yards, 


258  APPENDIX. 

stood  a  platform,  about  forty  feet  long  and  twenty 
feet  wide,  covered  with  boards  as  a  protection  from 
the  sun. 

On  the  platform  were  seated  the  chairman,  the 
orators,  representatives  of  the  press,  and  invited 
guests.  The  seats  fronting  and  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  platform  were  reserved  for  Mayor 
Conant  and  the  Missouri  escort,  as  also  for  the 
Hartford  escort. 

Mayor  Dorsett,  the  marshal  of  the  day,  assisted 
by  numerous  aids,  constituted  themselves  into  a 
police  corps,  and  kept  order  among  the  assembled 
multitude,  which,  at  the  hour  of  opening  the  exer 
cises,  could  not  have  amounted  to  less  than  fifteen 
thousand  people. 

The  platform  was  occupied  by  the  following  dis 
tinguished  personages: — His  Excellency  Governor 
Wm.  A.  Buckingham,  of  Connecticut ;  his  Excel 
lency  Governor  Wm.  Sprague,  of  Rhode  Island,  and 
staff,  consisting  of  Colonel  Lyman  B.  Frieze,  Colo 
nel  Tyron  Sprague,  Colonel  John  A.  Gardner,  Colo 
nel  Thomas  Harris,  Attorney  General  Walter  S. 
Burgess,  and  Paymaster  General  J.  C.  Knight ; 
Mayor  of  Providence;  Hon.  Galusha  A.  Grow, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives ;  Senator 
Foster,  Hon.  A.  A.  Burnham,  member  of  Congress, 
from  the  Third  District  of  Connecticut ;  Major 
General  J.  T.  Pratt,  Connecticut  Militia ;  Brigadier 


APPENDIX.  259 

General  Casey,  United  States  Army;  General 
Schouler,  of  Massachusetts,  of  Governor  Andrew's 
staff;  Colonel  J.  W.  Witherell,  do.;  R.  Mont 
gomery  Field,  Esq.,  of  the  Boston  Post  /  C.  C. 
Adams,  Paymaster  United  States  Army ;  Captain 
Knowlton,  First  Artillery,  United  States  Army, 
Instructor  at  West  Point ;  Hon.  Richard  Busteed, 
of  New  York;  Hon.  J.  B.  Colt,  of  Missouri;  his 
Honor  Mayor  Deming  and  Postmaster  Cleveland, 
both  of  Hartford;  Major  Warner,  of  the  Third 
Connecticut  Regiment ;  Colonel  Cooley,  of  the  First 
Connecticut  Regiment ;  Major  H.  J.  Con  ant,  Aide 
of  the  late  General  Lyon ;  Captain  J.  B.  Plummer, 
First  Infantry,  United  States  Army ;  Major  G.  G. 
Lyon,  Brigadier  Surgeon  to  the  late  General  Lyon  ; 
Captain  G.  P.  Edgar,  General  Fremont's  staff; 
Lieutenant  E.  J.  Clark,  Third  Missouri  Reserve 
Corps,  and  many  other  distinguished  gentlemen, 
both  military  and  civic. 

At  half-past  ten  ex-Governor  Cleveland  called  the 
assembly  to  order,  and  in  a  terse  and  feeling  man 
ner  stated  the  occasion  of  the  vast  concourse,  and 
begged  the  audience  to  pay  particular  attention  to 
the  orators  of  the  day.  A  chorus  of  ladies  and  gen 
tlemen,  led  by  Rufus  Weston,  chaunted  the  hymn : 

''  Hark  from  the  tomb  a  mournful  sound." 

After  which  an  impressive  prayer  was  offered  up  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Williams,  of  Chaplin — who  was  for  ten 


260  APPENDIX. 

years  pastor  of  the  church,  opposite  which  the  cere 
monies  were  conducted — for  the  deceased,  his 
friends,  and  the  preservation  of  the  country. 

Ex-Governor  Cleveland  introduced  Judge  Elisha 
Carpenter,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  residing  at 
Killingly,  who  delivered  a  lengthy  oration  on  the 
life,  character,  rise,  and  progress  of  General 
Nathaniel  Lyon,  whose  history  he  traced  from  his 
birth  until  his  untimely  death  on  the  10th  day  of 
August  last,  while  gallantly  leading  his  army.  The 
Hon.  Galusha  A.  Grow  followed  the  Judge  in  an 
eloquent  strain. 

Mr.  Grow  commenced  his  address  by  remarking 
that  "  once  more  he  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  stand 
ing  upon  his  native  heath,  but  he  did  not  expect 
that  it  would  be  upon  so  solemn  and  melancholy  an 
occasion.  They  had  assembled  at  a  sad  hour ;  they 
mourned  a  nation's  loss,  and  the  soil  that  covers  the 
remains  of  a  Putnam,  a  Hale  and  a  Knowlton,  and 
shortly  a  Lyon,  has  already  become  sacred  to  the 
memory  of  every  patriot."  The  speaker  then  illus 
trated  how  Martin  Luther  first  incepted  the  revo 
lution  in  religion  while  confined  in  a  dreary  dun 
geon,  and  how  successfully  he  accomplished  it.  He 
then  passed  on  to  the  period  of  the  discovery  of 
this  continent.  He  continued — "  Another  period  is 
passed,  and  on  an  icy  December  morning  the  good 
old  ship  May  Flower  lands  her  precious  cargo  on 


APPENDIX.  261 

our  shores,  and  a  new  era  begins.  But  let  us  skip 
a  century  and  a  new  child  is  born.  The  Revolution, 
like  a  flaming  river,  whose  fires  all  the  water 
in  the  world  could  not  quench,  is  instituted.  A 
Constitution  is  framed  and  a  great  nation  declared 
itself  free  and  independent.  We  gained  the  victory 
then,  as  also  in  1812,  and  at  present  we  are  to  see 
whether  that  Constitution  can  be  maintained  against 
the  corruption  and  treason  hatched  by  traitors,  and 
in  whose  defence  the  noble  hero  lying  yonder,  cold 
and  inanimate,  sacrificed  his  life.  Nations  cannot 
be  punished  in  the  next  world,  and  must  be  in  this. 
The  loss  of  war  comes  home  to  our  (your)  firesides  ; 
lives  must  be  sacrificed,  and  the  affliction  of  one 
whom  you  love  and  respect  is  at  the  present  at  your 
door.  The  speaker  continued,  that  that  was  the 
day  to  sow  the  soil  with  the  blood  of  the  noble  mar 
tyrs,  from  which  would  spring  forth  armed  heroes 
to  defend  that  sacred  Constitution  fought  for  and 
obtained  by  the  hearts'  blood  of  our  ancestors. 
While  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic  were  desolated 
with  war,  leaving  its  harrowing  traces  behind,  we 
see  with  horror  the  retrograde  movement  of  one  of 
the  greatest  experiments.  A  revolution  fought 
three-fourths  of  a  century  ago  must  be  fought  over 
again,  and  what  a  costly  war  it  was.  Yet  to  gain 
our  liberty,  yet  costly  as  it  appeared,  it  was  cheap 
at  any  price.  To  maintain  the  integrity  of  our 


262  APPENDIX. 

Government  -  such  men  as  General  Lyon  suffered 
death  ;  and  when  the  time  should  come  that  free 
Governments  cannot  be  sustained,  even  at  such 
sacrifices,  then  we  must  give  up  in  despair  and  pro 
nounce  republics  a  failure.  But  as  long  as  a  united 
people  are  determined  to  stand  by  the  Constitution, 
and  a  Government — the  best  and  most  liberal  on 
the  face  of  the  univer.se,  such  fears  are  impossible 
to  be  realized.  To-day  your  townsman  falls,  to-mor 
row  one  from  a  distant  State — so  it  was  in  the  days 
of  1776 — valuable  lives  were  then  lost  as  at  present. 
The  flag  watered  by  their  blood  is  now  dishonored, 
and  this  is  done  by  men  born  under  the  shade  of 
the  flag  of  Washington,  nurtured  by  the  institutions 
which  were  established  by  our  forefathers,  and  who 
are  acting  the  parricide  to  perfection  in  delibe 
rately  trampling  under  foot  the  costly  and  dear- 
bought  victory  of  freedom.  The  speaker  further 
said,  if  four  millions  of  people  are  competent  to  over 
throw  the  work  of  our  sires  against  twenty  millions, 
then  it  deserves  to  be  a  failure,  and  Uie  sacrifice  of 
many  valuable  lives,  like  the  one  who  lies  in  yon 
der  church,  must  invoke  the  very  heavens  for  ven 
geance  on  those  by  whose  acts  they  have  been  made 
martyrs.  The  meeting  of  the  day,  Mr.  Grow  con 
tinued,  was  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  to  one  of  the 
martyrs  of  the  present  revolution.  The  boom  of 
the  cannon  at  Lexington  raised  an  obscure  Colonel 


APPENDIX.  263 

to  the  proud  leader  our  forefathers  had  in  General 
Washington.  More  such  men,  who  are  at  this 
moment  in  obscurity,  will  be  found  to  lead  on  our 
victorious  armies,  and  bring  back  our  glorious 
country  to  her  former  proud  position.  Let  the  bier 
pass  on.  Nathaniel  Lyon,  though  slain,  will  live 
for  ever  in  the  memory  of  his  countrymen.  How 
can  a  man  die  a  nobler  death  than  by  facing  the 
fire  for  the  sake  of  his  country  ?  The  very  waters 
will  murmur  a  requiem  to  his  memory.  His  body 
is  interred  in  his  native  soil,  his  monument  is  the 
granite  hills,  and  his  headstone  a  nation's  grief. 
The  speaker  concluded  with  the  following  brilliant 
sentence: — Fortunate  in  life,  he  is  doubly  fortunate 
in  death.  If  there  be  on  this  earthly  sphere  a  boon 
and  offering  heaven  holds  dear,  it  is  the  last  libation 
liberty  draws,  and  the  heart  that  bleeds  and  breaks 
in  its  cause. 

Mr.  Grow  took  his  seat  quietly,  and  even  the 
solemn  occasion  could  not  refrain  the  audience  from 
giving  vent  to  their  plaudits  by  clapping  of  hands. 

Governor  Wm.  A.  Buckingham  was  then  intro 
duced.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  remarked 
that  Ashford,  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution,  gave 
to  the  cause  of  liberty  a  Knowlton,  who  fell  early, 
and  was  lamented  by  General  Washington  ;  and 
to-day  a  vast  concourse  had  assembled  to  pay 
homage  to  the  remains  of  another  son  of  Ashford, 


264  APPENDIX. 

whose  loss  a' nation  mourns.  Such  men  as  Putnam, 
Knowlton,  Warren,  and  a  host  of  others  fought  for 
our  freedom,  a  sacred  Constitution,  and  all  the  bless 
ings  we  have  enjoyed  were  their  handiwork.  To 
maintain  its  integrity  the  brave  and  honored  son  of 
Connecticut  fell  a  martyr.  Thanking  the  audience 
for  their  attention,  and  the  Chairman  for  his  com 
pliments,  Governor  Buckingham  gave  way  to  the 
popular  Executive  and  gallant  military  chieftain — 
Wm.  Sprague,  Governor  of  Rhode  Island.  In 
response  to  the  wishes  of  the  audience  he  mounted 
a  chair  to  address  them.  This  was  the  first  time  in 
his  life,  he  said,  that  he  had  appeared  before  an 
audience  in  another  state ;  but  in  order  to  become 
more  familiar  with  his  neighbors  he  had  pitched  his 
tent  among  them.  He  did  not  come  to  Eastford  to 
receive  honors,  but  to  do  honor  to  the  lamented 
dead.  He  was  proud  to  avail  himself  of  the  privi 
lege  to  tread  upon  the  native  soil  of  one  whose  life 
was  sacrificed  in  the  cause  of  his  country.  He 
admonished  all  to  emulate  the  example  of  General 
Lyon  in  patriotic  devotion  to  his  country  and  her 
cause.  That  country  was  now  in  danger.  All  our 
efforts  were  necessary  to  preserve  its  purity.  Even 
women  and  children  could  be  of  great  assistance. 
Let  every  youth  buckle  on  his  armor  and  go  bravely 
to  the  field  and  do  his  duty  there  with  patriotic 
determination.  Let  our  women  imitate  the  example 


APPENDIX.  265 

of  the  women  of  '76,  and  the  contest  will  soon  be 
over.  The  time  for  words  or  debate  has  long  since 
passed,  and  at  the  present  moment  it  is  not  the  power 
of  argument,  but  the  power  of  battalions  that  is  the 
sinew  of  war.  These  are  the  doctrines  I  promul 
gated  in  my  own  state,  and  I  take  the  liberty  to 
breathe  them  in  another.  Marshal  your  forces, 
stem  the  tide,  and  bring  back  our  country  to  its 
original  purity  and  glory.  Rhode  Island  will  do 
her  duty ;  Connecticut  must  not  forget  her  obliga 
tion,  and  when  victory  again  perches  upon  our  ban 
ners  the  states  will  be  closer  united  than  they  have 
been  heretofore.  The  Governor  continued  for  some 
time  in  this  patriotic  strain,  and  finally  gave  way  to 
Judge  Colt  of  Missouri. 

The  Judge  spoke  of  the  virtues  of  the  deceased 
soldier,  whom,  whilst  in  St.  Louis,  he  had  learned 
to  esteem  for  his  many  good  qualities.  He  con 
cluded  by  saying  that  if  Connecticut  had  more  men 
like  General  Lyon  in  the  field,  Missouri  would  not 
long  remain  in  dread  of  rebel  hordes. 

Captain  Edgar,  of  General  Fremont's  staff,  paid 
a  high  compliment  to  the  deceased,  also  to  Major 
Conant ;  Captain  Plummer,  of  the  First  United 
States  Infantry — who  so  signally  distinguished  him 
self  in  the  battle  where  General  Lyon  lost  his  life — 
Lieutenant  Clark  and  the  escort  of  the  body  from 
St.  Louis. 

12 


266  APPENDIX. 

Major  Conant,  aide  to  the  deceased  commander, 
was  also  called  upon  and  made  a  few  appropriate 
remarks. 

Senator  Foster  was  next  introduced.  He  spoke 
of  the  valor  of  General  Lyon,  and  said  he  deemed 
it  an  honor  to  have  the  remains  of  such  a  patriotic 
and  gallant  man  repose  in  his  own  native  soil.  General 
Lyon  was  a  brave  man,  and  the  citizens  of  Eastford 
should  show  the  country  that  they  are  worthy  of 
being  his  townsmen  by  enlisting  in  the  cause  in 
which  the  former  lost  his  life  to  defend. 

Mayor  Deming,  of  Hartford,  spoke  eloquently  for 
some  time,  enrapturing  his  hearers.  He  also  paid 
the  highest  compliments  to  the  many  good  qualities 
and  undaunted  heroism  of  the  deceased,  eulogizing 
his  acts  at  the  battles  of  Contreras  and  Churubusco, 
where  he  shed  his  first  blood  for  his  country.  In 
Kansas,  Oregon,  and  Missouri  the  heroic  General 
has  fought  bloody  battles  and  distinguished  himself. 
His  Honor  concluded : — "  How  sweet  and  glorious 
it  is  to  die  for  one's  country  and  for  people's  liberty." 

The  Hon.  Richard  Busteed,  of  this  city,  who  was 
present  by  invitation,  closed  the  exercises  with  an 
eloquent  and  affecting  address — which,  for  want  of 
room,  we  are  compelled  to  omit — after  which  the 
assemblage  dispersed  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
some  refreshments  before  proceeding  to  the  burial 
ground,  two  and  a  half  miles  distant.  The  speakers 


APPENDIX.  267 

and  guests  were  entertained  with  a  bountiful  repast 
by  the  Committee,  Governor  Sprague  occupying 
the  head  of  the  table,  with  Governor  Buckingham 
on  his  right  and  Major  General  Pratt  on  his  left. 
Rev.  Mr.  Chamberlin  said  grace  before  the  meal. 

The  funeral  cortege  assumed  its  march  about  half- 
past  three  o'clock  in  the  following  order : — 

A  cavalcade  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen 
in  command  of  Colonel  Sabine  ;  Tiger  Engine  Com 
pany,  No.  7,  of  Southbridge;  Home  Guard,  of 
Woodstock;  Band;  Light  Guard,  of  Hartford; 
Colt's  Army  Band;  Hearse;  City  Guards;  Pall- 
Bearers,  both  sides ;  Officers  of  Army  and  Navy ; 
Principal  mourners  and  relatives  of  deceased  ;  Citi 
zens  on  foot,  and  citizens  in  carriages. 

The  procession  was  at  least  a  mile  and  a  half  in 
length.  The  pall-bearers  were  Governor  Sprague 
and  Major  General  Pratt  on  the  right,  and  Gover 
nor  Buckingham  and  Brigadier  General  Casey  on 
the  left.  It  was  generally  and  favorably  remarked 
how  well  Governor  Buckingham  and  General  Pratt 
fraternized  in  behalf  of  our  country,  since  only  a 
short  time  has  elapsed  when  these  two  gentlemen 
were  gladiators  in  the  political  arena  for  guberna 
torial  honors. 

The  burial  ground,  which  is  located  at  a  village 
called  Phoenixville,  two  and  a  half  miles  distant 
from  Eastford,  was  not  reached  until  nearly  fire 


268  APPENDIX. 

o'clock.  The  plot  in  which  the  remains  were  clepo 
sited  is  the  family  vault,  embracing  about  t\venty 
five  feet  square,  surrounded  by  four  granite  pillars, 
from  which  iron  chains  are  fastened  to  serve  as  a 
railing.  In  this  lot  the  deceased  members  of  the 
Lyon  family  are  interred,  among  whom  are  the 
father  and  mother  of  the  late  General. 

The  graveyard  is  small,  and  lies  in  a  vale  sur 
rounded  by  sloping  hills.  In  the  centre  thereof 
weeping  willows  of  great  height  and  beauty  serve 
not  only  for  shadow,  but  to  ornament  this  home 
stead  of  the  dead.  The  hills  were  thickly  dotted 
with  human  masses,  and  the  military,  forming  a  hol 
low  square  around  the  fresh  made  grave,  the  fire 
men  immediately  in  the  rear,  and  the  people  stand 
ing  and  sitting  on  the  sloping  hills,  altogether  formed 
a  scene  for  a  Church  or  a  Kenset  to  reduce  to  canvass. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Adams,  the  Methodist  minister  of 
Eastford,  performed  the  Methodist  Episcopal  burial 
ceremonies;  Major  Conant,  Captain  Edgar  and  the 
St.  Louis  escort  partially  filling  up  the  grave;  after 
which  the  City  Guard,  under  orders  of  Captain 
Prentice,  fired  a  volley  of  three  rounds  over  the 
grave,  while  the  band  performed  a  dirge.  The 
spectators  then  quietly  withdrew.  The  relatives 
expressed  their  sincere  thanks  to  the  St.  Louis  escort 
for  their  kindness  in  closely  guarding  the  remains. 

The  relatives  of  the  late  General  Lyon  consist  of 


APPENDIX.  269 

two  brothers,  John  and  William,  both  of  whom 
live  in  Windham  county ;  Mr.  J.  B.  Hasler,  who 
married  a  sister  of  the  General,  residing  at  Web 
ster,  Massachusetts,  and  an  unmarried  sister.  The 
brothers  are  men  of  family,  and  mostly  all  of  their 
offspring  were  present  on  this  occasion. 

The  ceremonies  attendant  upon  the  interment  of 
General  Lyon  will  form  part  of  the  history  as  yet 
unwritten,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  quiet  little 
town  of  Eastford  will,  a  long  time  hence,  remember 
the  immense  congregation  assembled  within  its  pre 
cincts  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  respect  to  the  remains 
of  the  valiant  but  unfortunate  chieftain.  To  Major 
Conant,  Captain  Plummer,  Captain  Edgar,  Lieute 
nant  Clark  and  the  eight  members  of  the  Third 
Missouri  Reserve  Corps,  the  greatest  credit  is  due 
for  their  unceasing  watchfulness  over  the  corpse 
entrusted  to  their  charge. 

The  people  having  paid  just  homage  to  the  gal 
lant  Lyon,  and  his  own  native  soil  covering  his  now 
inanimate  body,  let  us  drop  a  tear  to  his  memory 
and  turn  away  to  brighter  scenes,  encourage  our 
living  heroes  to  do  their  duty  to  their  country  like 
the  illustrious  deceased,  and  our  land  will  very  soon 
again  enjoy  the  blessings  of  which  rebel  traitors 
endeavored  to  rob  her. 

Requiescat  in  pace. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  GEN.  LYON. 

Enfurl  our  flag  half-mast  to-day, 
In  sorrow  'mid  the  clang  of  war, 

Each  crimson  stripe  is  turned  to  gray, 
To  black  each  golden  star. 

The  drooping  breeze  scarce  stirs  a  fold, 
The  birds  complain  with  fettered  breath, 

The  clouds  hang  sullenly  and  cold — 
For  lo !  a  hero's  death  ! 

From  far  Missouri's  prairie  plain, 

The  echo  of  his  battle  cry 
Sounds  and  recedes,  and  sounds  again 

His  life-earned  victory. 

O,  Lyon !  on  thy  martial  bier 

The  tears  of  grateful  millions  flow ; 

And  treason  well  may  shrink  and  fear 
Its  fated  overthrow. 


NATHANIEL  LYON.  271 

For  wheresoe'er  thy  comrades  stand, 

To  face  the  traitors,  as  of  yore, 
Thy  prescient  spirit  shall  command, 

And  lead  the  charge  once  more. 

Then  fling  our  flag  mast-high  to-day, 
Triumphant  'mid  the  clang  of  war, 

And  death  to  him  who  shall  betray 
One  single  stripe  or  star ! 

New  York  Evening  Post. 


LYON. 

Sing,  bird,  on  green  Missouri's  plain, 

Thy  saddest  song  of  sorrow  : 
Drop  tears,  Oh  clouds,  in  gentlest  rain 

Ye  from  the  winds  can  borrow ; 
Breathe  out,  ye  winds,  your  softest  sigh, 

Weep,  flowers,  in  dewy  splendor, 
For  him  who  knew  well  how  to  die, 

But  never  to  surrender. 

Uprose  serene  the  August  sun 

Upon  that  day  of  glory  ; 
Upcurled  from  musket  and  from  gun 

The  war-cloud  gray  and  hoary. 
It  gathered  like  a  funeral  pall, 

Now  broken  and  now  blended, 
Where  rang  the  bugle's  angry  call, 

And  rank  with  rank  contended. 


LYON.  273 

Four  thousand  men,  as  brave  and  true 

As  e'er  went  forth  in  daring, 
Upon  the  foe  that  morning  threw 

The  strength  of  their  despairing. 
They  feared  not  death — men  bless  the  field 

That  patriot  soldiers  die  on — 
Fair  Freedom's  cause  was  sword  and  shield, 

And  at  their  head  was  Lyon ! 

Their  leader's  troubled  soul  looked  forth 

From  eyes  of  troubled  brightness  ; 
Sad  soul !  the  burden  of  the  North 

Had  pressed  out  all  its  lightness. 
He  gazed  upon  the  unequal  fight, 

His  ranks  all  rent  and  gory, 
And  felt  the  shadows  close  like  night 

Round  his  career  of  glory. 

"  General,  come  lead  us  !"  loud  the  cry 
From  a  brave  band  was  ringing — 

"  Lead  us,  and  we  will  stop,  or  die, 
That  battery's  awful  singing." 


274  LYON. 

He  spurred  to  where  his  heroes  stood, 
Twice  wounded — no  wound  knowing — 

The  fire  of  battle  in  his  blood 
And  on  his  forehead  glowing. 

Oh,  cursed  for  aye  that  traitor's  hand, 

And  cursed  that  aim  so  deadly, 
Which  smote  the  bravest  of  the  land, 

And  dyed  his  bosom  redly  ! — 
Serene  he  lay  while  past  him  pressed 

The  battle's  furious  billow, 
As  calmly  as  a  babe  may  rest 

Upon  its  mother's  pillow. 

So  Lyon  died !  and  well  may  flowers 

His  place  of  burial  cover, 
For  never  had  this  land  of  ours 

A  more  devoted  lover. 
Living,  his  country  was  his  bride, 

His  life  he  gave  her  dying ; 
Life,  fortune,  love — he  naught  denied 

To  her  and  to  her  sighing. 


LYON.  275 

Rest,  Patriot,  in  thy  hill-side  grave, 

Beside  her  form  who  bore  thee ! 
Long  may  the  land  thou  diedst  to  save 

Her  bannered  stars  wave  o'er  thee  ! 
Upon  her  history's  brightest  page, 

And  on  Fame's  glowing  portal, 
She'll  write  thy  grand,  heroic  rage, 

And  grave  thy  name  immortal ! 

H.    P. 

Philda.  Saturday  Post. 


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LIBRARY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-Series  458 


2018UO 


Lyon,  N. 

Last  political 


L 


yon 


Call  Number: 


L96 


201840 


